The Invisible Web ~ What It Is and How To Find It
~~Linda F.
Johnson, Linda's Computer Stop
Unless you are a librarian or an educator, you
may not know about the mysterious "invisible web". Most of us know
about the "visible" web....that's all the websites you find when you use a
traditional search engine in the traditional way. However, there's
also an "invisible" web which includes a wealth of information you will
never find if you search the net in the traditional way. There are
many extensive databases filled with technical papers and reports that never
show up in search queries because the pages are not really stored anywhere
but instead, come up dynamically when you search a particular database.
Therefore, these pages will never come up when you search using Google or
Yahoo unless you know how to include databases in your search. One of
the easiest ways to do this is to simply add the word "database" to the
keywords you search by.Here's an example:
Go to www.google.com
and search for toxic chemicals and you will see the pages you
find are mostly from popular magazines and/or websites trying to sell
something. But, if you search for toxic chemicals database
you will see you find white papers, government papers, technical
journals, and research papers as well. These are the articles that are out
there on the net but are basically "invisible" unless you subscribe to some
database service, which usually includes a hefty annual fee.
Another way to get into the invisible web is through a library or
academic site. Some examples of these types of sites are:
The Librarian's Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/
Academic Info
http://www.academicinfo.net/
And, Infomine
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
And, the best way, in my opinion, is to use the search engine created by
Gary Price, the man who has single-handedly made the invisible web visible.
His search engine is called direct search and is located here:
http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm
If you thought you knew how to use search engines to find anything and
everything, you might be surprised how much is still out there that you
never found before.
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Linda Johnson is a
college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well
as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance
learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at
Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches
and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this
newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book
I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book
II: Table Wizardry,
How
To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and
her newest series of MSOffice
eBook Tutorials and CD
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