Creating Your Own Web Tours
It is easy to create your own Web Tours on any topic using search engines. Heres how. Since most word processors allow you to save
any page as a web page, you just need to type in a list of web addresses and save the list "as html" to create a web page!
Youd first go to good search engine like http://askjeeves.com and would enter the words for whatever youre seeking like "Native American." If you include the quotes it will retrieve only web sites with the exact phrase "Native American." Without the quotes, all pages with the word "Native" and all pages with the word "American," will also be retrieved, which is not what you want. The more specific the phrases you put in quotes, the more specific your results will be! If you add "AND storytelling" youll get Native American storytelling resources, and if you add "AND coyote" youll get a listing of coyote stories! Try it!
Lets say you want to create a listing of tutorials on learning search engines. If you want search engine tutorials you can enter "search engine AND tutorial* " to your search phrase youll get a listing of only search engine tutorials. The * at the end of the word "tutorial" means it will retrieve pages with any letters attached to the word "tutorial," such as "tutorials". Many similar, and easy, ways of making your searches more specific are found by clicking on the HELP buttons present in all search engines. Take a few minutes to learn them by experimenting, and youll save hours of time! Use this method to find tutorials on anything you want to learn. Be sure to try this!
One Big Secret for Saving Lots of Time!
Once you find a site which matches the topic of your search, one of the first things to check out is the listing of "other links." Youll find that the better sites list dozens of similar sites which will save you lots of time by allowing you to collect these listings rather than wasting time attempting to collect individual links.
Use "cut and paste" to copy the web addresses of these listings quickly to your own documents or web pages. Sites that collect the best links on a specific topic are often called "portals". If you create a list of topic-specific portal sites youll save yourself, and others, great amounts of time finding the best of the best. Many portal sites keep their listings current, so you wont have to! Youll find that the best portal sites are usually the most frequently listed sites in most listings of "other links."
At http://www.tramline.com you can fill in the blanks to create your own
web tour which will be instantly posted on the web for you!
Great Searching Tutorials
Search Engine Watch
http://www.hamline.edu/library/bush/handouts/comparisons.html
A nice collection of articles and guides for beginners.
Great Search Engines to Explore
Ask Jeeves