Are You Feeling Lucky?
By Cate Eales
Appeared June 12, 2008 on castanet.net
Searching is good when you don't know the answer, but
unnecessary when you do. I've got a couple of tips about where to find
things, and a shortcut to get to the places you already know.
You don't need to search if you know where it is!
In the past two weeks, I've had several readers and a few clients ask me
the same question. "How come when I type in the name of the website and
click "I'm feeling lucky" I don't always go to the site?"
We'll get to that in a minute. But first, I have a question. If you
already know the name of the site, why are you typing it into a search
box?
Search engines like Google and Yahoo! and Live Search are useful when you
don't know what site you want, or when you don't know the "address" of a
site. But if you do know where you want to go, you can just type that
information into the address bar at the top of your browser, press the
Enter key on your keyboard, and go right there.
Take a look at your browser right now. In the top left area of the window,
you should see the Address bar. This always displays the URL of the site
you're looking at. (URL is kind of the site's address.) If you know that
from wherever you are you want to go to castanet.net, or to expedia.ca, or
to some other site, you can just type that in. You already know the
answer, so you don't have to search for it.
On the other hand, if you want to know the name of a
site and you can describe it somehow, enter that description into a Search
bar, like the one on the Google or Yahoo site. For example, if you wanted
some news about Kelowna, and you couldn't remember (or didn't know) the
URL of the site you want, you could go to the Google.ca page and type in
"news in kelowna, bc" (without the quotes). If you click the "Search"
button, you'll see a list of sites. If you click on "I'm feeling lucky"
you'll go right to the first one on the list.
No matter how lucky you're feeling, if you know the address you can go
right there, leaving nothing to chance.
Find the missing manual
As long as we're looking for things, I found a great resource for user
guides. Check out
SafeManuals.com. I finally figured out why I can't get the radio to
come on before the alarm goes off on the Bose Wave Radio we have here. Are
you feeling lucky? Maybe the manual for your gadget is there. Just type
safemanuals.com into the Address bar to find out!
Find which program handles a file
Every Windows file has a file extension, whether we can see it or not. The
file extension is the part of the file name after the "dot." The file
extension tells Windows which program to use to handle the file.
Sometimes we end up with files that confuse Windows (if you can believe
that). To find out what program is supposed to manage a certain type of
file, you can visit the
"Every File Extension in the World" website, here, or the
FILExt site, here.
If you know the file extension, these sites will find the likely program.
If you have no idea what the file is, try the
Online TrID
Identifier, here. You can upload the file for analysis.
Thank you everyone who wrote with questions, comments, and suggestions.
You can add yours by sending email to cate@rlis.com. The column archives
are always available for browsing at http://rlis.com/column.htm.
Thank you everyone who wrote with questions, comments, and words of
encouragement. Please email
cate@rlis.com if you have anything to ask or tell about your computer.
Don't forget, you can browse the column archives at any time.
Point your browser here to go
there. If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email,
please visit this link. It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the
RSS Feed, click here.
Happy Fathers Day!
Links
User Guides and Manuals
http://safemanuals.com/
Every File Extension in the World
http://whatis.techtarget.com/file-extension-list-A/0,289933,sid9,00.html
FILExt
http://filext.com/index.php
TrID Identifier
http://mark0.net/onlinetrid.aspx
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives
http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed:
http://rlis.com/rlis.xml
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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible
and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric,
and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions,
helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware
eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image
management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management.
Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your
comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit
the Real Life Internet Solutions website at
www.rlis.com.
©
Cate Eales 2008 – All Rights Reserved
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