How to Surf the Internet (find anything).

Okay, so this is so simple it's almost TOO simple. Or is it? Follow along and see if you can pick up a thing or 3!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• An internet connection
• Some time to kill
• Your Favorite Search Engine

1. Surfing the 'NET. Seems simple enough. But how many times have you found yourself UNABLE to find what you are looking for?
   Without being over technical, these are some of the techniques I have picked up about Looking for things online.
   Begin by opening a Search engine. (you will need to be connected to the Internet).
   It doesn't really matter which one you use. I use Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live Search.
2. Lets choose something to look up. How about something easy? Let's try Ehow.
   Type ehow into the window and press search.
   Now, depending WHO you used there will be a LIST of returned results ranging from the home page to things remotely related.
   
   Let's turn up the heat a little.
   How about... The first object to orbit the earth.
   Okay good... Sputnik 1 from the USSR, October 4th 1957.
   
   Is it still up there? Well it took 3 search engines... but NO...It burned up in 1958.
   That's the long and short of it.
   But is that all?
   Not even close.
   Suppose you want to find an old friend. Type their name into a search engine and see what comes up.
   No luck? Try Yahoo people finder. Still no luck? Type in find somebody.
   You will find lots of FREE sites to search. Also type in "White Pages".
   Think outside the box. If you are looking for an old High School buddy whose name is common like Joe Smith. Try adding your High school name to the search. For example Joe + Smith + Grover + Cleveland + High.
   With the Classmate websites and Reunion websites, you might get lucky!
   This stuff works for most any "Search" engine.
   
   This takes more digging.
3. If you are looking for a Type of Shoes on Ebay... you type in the name and GO. But what if you are looking for a certain TYPE with a very common name. Or even an item that's popular with the MASS listers. Such as "Coach Handbag" and you get 3700 hits for Leather key fobs, cell phone holders AND handbags. Try entering the NAME, Model or Color. If all else fails... search by "Category".
4. Finally, try to FIND what you are looking for. In other words, spend some time looking through the results, page after page. Experiment. There are a few "TRICKS" to use when searching. "+" works on some engines to replace "AND".
   For example if you searched Truck... you might get THOUSANDS of hits about trucks. If you want a 1949 ford truck transmission You would type 1949 Ford Truck Transmission and get what you were looking for. The "+" sign still works as an AND.. but is usually not necessary these days. if you wanted a BROADER search you would put "OR" between the words.
   Just keep messing around with search engines and save anything interesting to your favorites. You will be surprised at what you can find (and didn't even know you were looking for).

Tips & Warnings

• Whenever you think of something, enter it in a SEARCH engine.
• Try looking things up (like on Ehow)
• Have fun!
• Be careful.. it's addictive!