November 20, 2000
Cindy Meneghin, MSU's manager of Web Services, recently spoke about the ins
and outs of getting around the Internet, during a lecture sponsored by the Women's
Center. For those of you who couldn't attend, and as a refresher for those of
you who did, here are Cindy's top 10 tips for surfin' the Net.
1. Surfer beware! Just because it's on the Web doesn't make it true!
2. Find a search engine you like and learn all its features.
3. Use different search engines for different kinds of searches. (http://cui.unige.ch/meta-index.html
provides a list of search engines by their topic specialty.)
4. Be specific with a keyword search, so you don't end up with thousands of
"hits." For example, don't keyword "cake." Instead use "German chocolate cake
recipes." Also know whether the search engine is case sensitive. For example,
using the search engine Infoseek, if you type "new jersey," you will get different
results than "New Jersey."
5. Know if you are looking at a commercial, nonprofit or government site,
and decide on its credibility and relevance to your search. Sometimes the .gov,
.org, .com is an indicator of who has created the site. For example, a .com
is a company and if you searched "health," the site may be promoting a product
or health solution. In a Web address anything after the second / and before
the next / is the domain name, so be aware of who is providing the information
on the site you are reading.
6. Look in related publications for suggested sites.
7. Don't give out your personal information unless you are sure you really
want to.
8. Don't be surprised if they know who you are, even if you never provided
personal information. Some IP information from your computer can be tracked
through the use of "cookies," a device used by some sites to look for information
about the computer viewing their site. The information, depending on how you
are connected to the Internet, could include your e-mail address or account
name. You can set the preferences on your computer to warn you if a site is
using "cookies."
9. Find out how to contact a representative at the company you are ordering
from, just in case something goes wrong electronically. (Can you return that
toy at a store location, or do you have to UPS it back?)
10. Bookmark your favorite sites, but don't expect them to be there tomorrow.