It can be argued that the two main functions of the Internet for most people are email and finding information. The first is fairly straightforward; you sign up for an account with your ISP or with a Web-based client such as Yahoo, Hotmail (Windows Live) or Gmail. The second can make you crazy and waste a lot of time.

Most human knowledge and information now seems to be on the Web. Searching for it is easy. But finding exactly what you are looking for can be quite a challenge. Here are a few tips that should help. But first, as you conduct your searches and visit Web sites, pay careful attention to any popup boxes or alerts you may receive. If you download something, proceed carefully. Make sure you are actually downloading the software that you want. It is easy to be lured into clicking on the “wrong” link.

Read every End User License Agreement (EULA) from, well, end to end! If it says something like “The publisher may include third party software”, then your download may include adware or spyware, or worse. Hit that Cancel or Delete button quick. Or at least scan your computer with all your security programs right after the download.

Now let’s get to searching. You probably use almost automatically for all your searches. Try other search engines or directories occasionally, and you may get different, hopefully better results. You may know that you need to make your search as specific as possible. Try putting quotation marks around the search terms. For example, if you search on “early Web development” without quotes, you will get all sorts of results containing the words early, and Web, and development.

Not exactly what you had in mind. But if you search with the quotes, you will only get results containing all three words, in the order you wrote them. Somewhat better. Another lesser-known trick is to use inurl. Say you want to find all the URLs that contain the word security. Just enter this in Google: inurl:security

Some Web sites are so big, you could get lost inside them for days. Your spouse may have to send out a search party to find you! To avoid this, use the search within feature. The syntax is site:URL “keywords”. For example, if you want to rummage around on Microsoft’s site for information on Windows 98, enter this: site:http://www.microsoft.com “Windows 98” And if you actually have Windows 98 on your computer, it is time to upgrade.

Want to keep others from seeing where you have wandered and searched on the Net? Start by deleting your tracks in Internet Explorer. Click Tools, Internet Options, General tab. Click Delete Cookies, Delete Files and Clear History. In Firefox, click Tools, Options, Privacy.

You can also search for search engines (search+engines) or for Google or Yahoo Cheat Sheets for a lot more tricks. Be patient and have fun!

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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