007 Web Tools

Google and the all the other also rans have made is quite a bit easier to find what we are looking for on the Internet. In a future post we will discuss some tips for enhancing your ability to use these great tools. Today I would like to point out some nice new tools for finding text on an individual web page. Most browsers provide a “Find in this page” or “Find on this page” function to search for text on a page and move to the next or previous occurrence of your keywords. The Google Toolbar (free download) offers a few additional tools that you might find helpful.

But first, let’s distinguish, for the purposes of this discussion, the difference between search text and find text:

Search text refer to the keywords you type into the Google Search box
Find text refer to the exact words you enter into the Find box

When the ‘Highlight” icon is enabled each word from your Google search text will be highlighted on the page (each word in a different highlight color.) When you enable ‘Word Find’, the toolbar will generate an individual button for each word in the search text and each click of the button will find the next occurrence of that word. If you are searching for a phrase, place quotation marks around the phrase, e.g. “Illinois Wesleyan”. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Click here for help with Google Toolbar features

When you want to find a word or series of words on a page, use the ‘Find on this page’ function to open a Find box. If you are using Firefox 2.0 or later (highly recommended) use the shortcut Ctrl-F to bring up the find box at the bottom of the screen just above the status bar. As soon as you begin typing Firefox will begin to locate words beginning with those letters and offer a next, previous, and highlight option for your current find text. If you’re still following this, you will realize that it is possible that both search text (from your Google Search) and find text (from the ‘Find on this page’ function) will be highlighted at the same time.

In a later post, we will discuss what to do with the text once you find it. Use the comment section of this blog to let me know what you do now…bookmark?…cut and paste into another document?

Note to Safari users:

Use the Edit> Find> Find command (Cmd-F) to open a Find banner at the top of the webpage. Use the arrow keys to move to the previous and next occurence of the find text. Click Done when you’re finished.

Earlier this summer I posted a short blog entry announcing a Wiki page that discusses methods of collecting RSS feeds and asked other to contribute. Only one person did. It’s now time to up the ante. This is your new challenge.

How do you organize your life online?

• What tools do you use for email, distribution lists, listservs, whatever?
• How do you find and read blogs, news articles, journals?
• Once you find them, how do you keep up with them, categorized them and get updates?
• Which tools do you use to keep in touch with your friends, colleagues, students?

Let me know by either updating the Wiki page, commenting to this blog entry, email, or personal contact.

Your responses and insights may help others who are struggling with this issues.

If you are like many of us, you may still be using an outdated browsers and searching techniques that you learn back in 1997. Over the next few posts, I would like to offer some simple tips for organizing, browsing, bookmarking and annotating web content so that it makes sense to you and you can find it when you need it.

Automatic updates:

First of all, make sure your operating system and browser are up-to-date. By spending just a few minutes each month updating your computer you will be protecting youself from viruses and malicious software and providing yourself with the most sophisticated software available. It is very easy to setup your system to automatically download updates whenever they are available.

Using multiple windows and tabs:

Some web sites and application work better for me using Firefox, others work better with Internet Explorer (or Safari on the Mac). I frequently have both open at the same time…and I always use multiple tabs within the browser. It allows me to keep several sites open at the same time and switch back and forth easily. Learn all you can about tabs and I’m sure you will find them very helpful. For instance:

• You can bookmark several tabs at once and easily return to your favorite set of sites.
• You can designate this favorite set of sites as your default setup.

I use Internet Explorer for Luminus (Pipeline), checking my 3900 calls and Google.
I use Mozilla Firefox for several blogs I am currently testing, Google Reader for RSS feeds, Meebo (web-based Instant Messaging) and the IWU Wiki.
And I may have another Firefox session (Window) open if I have a current project that requires several sites at a time.

To learn more about tabbed browsing, search the Help sections of your browser or search the internet for “tabbed browsing tips”. Let me know how it works out for you. We’ve setup a page on the campus Wiki to discuss your favorite 007 Web Tools.