Learn how to optimize your website for the Google search engine. Learn how to increase your page rank as determined by the leading Google search engine.
Did you know that 89% of search engine traffic goes through Google? Google is number one in search engine traffic. Therefore, you need to optimize your website on Google. Other search engines recognize that Google is the leader in search engine traffic. Therefore, other search engines are modeling their search engines off of Google. So if you optimize your website for Google then it will work well with the other search engines.
Internet marketing gurus know that you need to take full advantage of Google's search engine traffic. Therefore, they have intensely examined Google's search engine algorithm. This analysis enabled them to implement the most effective way to optimize their webpages.
The strategy they created works for any website. Let's talk about how you can apply this strategy to your squeeze page. Why your squeeze page? Your squeeze page is the most important part of your website. It is where you will earn subscribers to build your customer list.
First, take a look at your website. You should see your address bar at the top. Next to it you will see the Google toolbar. The Google toolbar will give you the Page rank. Page rank measures the importance of the website as determined by Google. Page rank is 0 to 10. 0 is the lowest and 10 is the highest. You should strive to get a higher page rank. A page rank of 10 is the best.
A common myth is that a high page rank comes from what is written on your website such as content and metatags. This is a myth. It doesn't matter what type of content you have on your websites. It has to do with what other websites are saying about you. This comes from website links. You want to have incoming links pointing at you. The more websites that point links to you, the higher your search engine rank will be. Links are like votes. The more votes you receive from other websitesArticle Search, the higher your page rank will become. It's all about links.
The number of incoming links you receive is not as important as the quality of the links. The websites that link to you need to be of high quality and importance. You want to focus on websites that have a high page rank. Those are the websites that you want pointing to your website. You can find the page rank of these websites by going to them and checking their Google rank from the Google toolbar.
Strive to find other websites that have a high page rank. See if you can swap links with them. You want them to "vote" for your website by pointing at your website.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter and Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host, became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. He has helped a number of clients target his specialty, opt-in email direct marketing systems. The Powerful Promoter is not only a sought-after internet marketer but has also marketed for some of the world's top experts whose reputations would shrivel if their followers ever found out someone else coached them on their online marketing strategies. For more information, visit Bacak's site athttp://www.powerfulpromoter.com or sign up for his Powerful Promoting Tips at http://www.promotingtips.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Effective SEO Comes Cheap
Search engine optimization or SEO is the hottest way to drive targeted traffic to your website. Maximizing the benefits of a well-SEO'ed website will yield lots of earnings for the marketer. However, SEO-ing your site might cost you thousands of dollars if you are such a newbie on this field.
But to tell you the truth, you can essentially get information on low cost SEO anywhere in the Internet. But only several really show you how to work out an affordable search engine optimization endeavor. And those few that really inform include this article.
1. Link exchanges
One cheap SEO method that can get you best results is through link exchanges or linking to and from other web sites. Depending on the websites that you would like to exchange links with, this tool could even cost you nothing at all. Contact the author or owner of the web site you want to have a link exchange with. You will be surprised with the eventual spiking up of your page ranking using this means of getting your website optimized.
2. Write or acquire key word rich articles
Writing truly informative and keyword-rich articles is one surefire way to make your Internet business more visible than ever. It's either you write your own articles or you get them from article directories that allow you to post these articles on your website as long as you keep the resource box or the author's byline in tact. Just don't stuff your articles with keywords that even idiots would get bore of reading them. The readability and freshness of your articles will still be the basis of whether your writers will keep on coming back to your website or not.
3. Catchy Domain Name
What better will make your target visitors remember your website but with a very easy-to-recall domain name. Something sweet and short will prove to be very invaluable. Registering your domain name is not for free. But creativity is.
4. Organize your site navigation
Providing easy steps in navigating your site is one way to make your visitors become at ease with your site. This, in turn, will improve the flow of traffic to your website.
Low cost SEO is always evolving like any other approach in information technology. There are many methods that can very well land you on the top ten rankings of Google or on any other search engines. Some may cost a lot but there are methods that can give you the same results at a low price or you can even do on your own such as those mentioned above.
About the Author
But to tell you the truth, you can essentially get information on low cost SEO anywhere in the Internet. But only several really show you how to work out an affordable search engine optimization endeavor. And those few that really inform include this article.
1. Link exchanges
One cheap SEO method that can get you best results is through link exchanges or linking to and from other web sites. Depending on the websites that you would like to exchange links with, this tool could even cost you nothing at all. Contact the author or owner of the web site you want to have a link exchange with. You will be surprised with the eventual spiking up of your page ranking using this means of getting your website optimized.
2. Write or acquire key word rich articles
Writing truly informative and keyword-rich articles is one surefire way to make your Internet business more visible than ever. It's either you write your own articles or you get them from article directories that allow you to post these articles on your website as long as you keep the resource box or the author's byline in tact. Just don't stuff your articles with keywords that even idiots would get bore of reading them. The readability and freshness of your articles will still be the basis of whether your writers will keep on coming back to your website or not.
3. Catchy Domain Name
What better will make your target visitors remember your website but with a very easy-to-recall domain name. Something sweet and short will prove to be very invaluable. Registering your domain name is not for free. But creativity is.
4. Organize your site navigation
Providing easy steps in navigating your site is one way to make your visitors become at ease with your site. This, in turn, will improve the flow of traffic to your website.
Low cost SEO is always evolving like any other approach in information technology. There are many methods that can very well land you on the top ten rankings of Google or on any other search engines. Some may cost a lot but there are methods that can give you the same results at a low price or you can even do on your own such as those mentioned above.
About the Author
John Ugoshowa. You are welcome to use this article on your website or
in your ezines
as long as you have a link back to
href="http://www.quickregister.net/partners/">http://www.quickregister.net/partners/
For more information on internet marketing see the Internet Marketing section of Quickregister.net Free Search Engine Submission Service
at:
href="http://www.quickregister.net/partners/">http://www.quickregister.net/partners/
in your ezines
as long as you have a link back to
href="http://www.quickregister.net/partners/">http://www.quickregister.net/partners/
For more information on internet marketing see the Internet Marketing section of Quickregister.net Free Search Engine Submission Service
at:
href="http://www.quickregister.net/partners/">http://www.quickregister.net/partners/
The Importance of Using Keyword-Rich Articles
I recently found out that a friend of mine has an online business that I was not aware of. She said that she sells beads and jewelry accessories. She sent me the link to her site and I gave it a cursory glance. I asked her how business was and she told me that business is ok, but that she would like to have more customers. I then asked her about her marketing and what all it consists of. She told me that she does not bother with it because her business is part of a franchise. I recommended to her that she use some keyword rich articles to improve her search engine results and she told me that she does not want to spend the money on it and that "business will pick up soon". She had no strategic plan of how her business would "pick up" though.
This is an all too common conversation I have with people when talking to them about search engine optimization through the use of keyword articles. Many of the people I talk to do not really know what search engine optimization is, much less what keyword articles are. Too often I see people who turn to the Internet as a way to make money but do not understand how to go from making a little money to having a booming business. Internet businesses are often times rather easy to operate and generate a good return on investment, but what if those returns on investment could double? Triple? More?
Consider this, when I did a search for "jewelry accessories" on Google there are 23,500,000 results listed at the time of this article writing. After looking at about three pages I stopped looking to see if her website was listed. This is typical for people who do searches for keywords like jewelry accessories. If they do not find what they are looking for in the first two or three pages they will generally stop looking and try other keyword combinations. Most people are not going to sift through 235 sites, much less 23,500,000 listings. The more you sift through the sites the less likely they are to be good matches to what you were looking for anyway.
Keyword articles could improve her search engine results a great deal. Keyword articles most often come up when someone types in "jewelry accessories" and other relevant keyword combinations. Creating articles that provide information, as well as adhere to a keyword density formula, is a major component as to how your website will get ranked higher in the search engine results.
Most often, it does take some time for Google and Yahoo to crawl the keyword articles on your website. You will not see an instant ranking increase the day you post these articles on your website. The major search engine companies prefer to find a website by way of a "natural" search. This is why inbound links to your site are also important. You can set the Revisit meta tag on your sitemap page to better represent the frequency by which you add new content to your site. Try to be accurate with this setting --- if you try to cheat the system, the search engine robots will eventually stop coming.
Sites that are discovered by the search engine robots through a natural search --- links from another website --- will be crawled far sooner than the site whose webmaster uses the Add URL link at the search engine's main website.
My friend did not realize the potential increase keyword-rich articles could have on her business and did not want to invest the money into developing this content. She was more concerned with the "now" and not the future returns that she could get from investing now in strategic marketing activities. It does cost some money to have keyword densities developed as well as having the articles written. It is also important to know what keywords to use. Keyword combinations can easily be researched on the Internet by using sites such as http://www.wordtracker.com. Once all of this is determined, the articles can be written and then posted to the website. There are many companies, such as http://www.keywordtext.com, that offer these types of services for a reasonable price.
Is the cost of doing this type of marketing worthwhile? Well that is up to the website owner to decide. If the website owner wants to see strong gains in the amount of hits his or her website is getting, then yes. The more people who visit your website, the more likely you are to sell your product or service. You may have a wonderful website and sell a great product or service, but if no one can find it, you are not meeting your potential.
How do you find products or services that you need? Do you look on the Internet? The phone book? Newspapers? Whatever method you choose to do your own shopping, you know that advertising and marketing produces results. You do not purchase goods and services from companies you cannot find. Do yourself and your business a favor and get some keyword articles written, so that you can watch your website traffic and sales soar.
About the Author
Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html
This is an all too common conversation I have with people when talking to them about search engine optimization through the use of keyword articles. Many of the people I talk to do not really know what search engine optimization is, much less what keyword articles are. Too often I see people who turn to the Internet as a way to make money but do not understand how to go from making a little money to having a booming business. Internet businesses are often times rather easy to operate and generate a good return on investment, but what if those returns on investment could double? Triple? More?
Consider this, when I did a search for "jewelry accessories" on Google there are 23,500,000 results listed at the time of this article writing. After looking at about three pages I stopped looking to see if her website was listed. This is typical for people who do searches for keywords like jewelry accessories. If they do not find what they are looking for in the first two or three pages they will generally stop looking and try other keyword combinations. Most people are not going to sift through 235 sites, much less 23,500,000 listings. The more you sift through the sites the less likely they are to be good matches to what you were looking for anyway.
Keyword articles could improve her search engine results a great deal. Keyword articles most often come up when someone types in "jewelry accessories" and other relevant keyword combinations. Creating articles that provide information, as well as adhere to a keyword density formula, is a major component as to how your website will get ranked higher in the search engine results.
Most often, it does take some time for Google and Yahoo to crawl the keyword articles on your website. You will not see an instant ranking increase the day you post these articles on your website. The major search engine companies prefer to find a website by way of a "natural" search. This is why inbound links to your site are also important. You can set the Revisit meta tag on your sitemap page to better represent the frequency by which you add new content to your site. Try to be accurate with this setting --- if you try to cheat the system, the search engine robots will eventually stop coming.
Sites that are discovered by the search engine robots through a natural search --- links from another website --- will be crawled far sooner than the site whose webmaster uses the Add URL link at the search engine's main website.
My friend did not realize the potential increase keyword-rich articles could have on her business and did not want to invest the money into developing this content. She was more concerned with the "now" and not the future returns that she could get from investing now in strategic marketing activities. It does cost some money to have keyword densities developed as well as having the articles written. It is also important to know what keywords to use. Keyword combinations can easily be researched on the Internet by using sites such as http://www.wordtracker.com. Once all of this is determined, the articles can be written and then posted to the website. There are many companies, such as http://www.keywordtext.com, that offer these types of services for a reasonable price.
Is the cost of doing this type of marketing worthwhile? Well that is up to the website owner to decide. If the website owner wants to see strong gains in the amount of hits his or her website is getting, then yes. The more people who visit your website, the more likely you are to sell your product or service. You may have a wonderful website and sell a great product or service, but if no one can find it, you are not meeting your potential.
How do you find products or services that you need? Do you look on the Internet? The phone book? Newspapers? Whatever method you choose to do your own shopping, you know that advertising and marketing produces results. You do not purchase goods and services from companies you cannot find. Do yourself and your business a favor and get some keyword articles written, so that you can watch your website traffic and sales soar.
About the Author
Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Metasearch Engine Review: Open Text's Query Server
A SPEEDY METASEARCH ENGINE THAT MAKES IT EASY TO FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
If you've been accessing the web since the mid-90's, you've heard of Open Text. It was one of the first major search engines on the Internet, developed by a company of the same name. Eventually, the Open Text Company decided to change its focus and concentrate on selling their search systems to businesses, and the Open Text search engine disappeared.
Query Server is one of the products Open Text is selling, but it's also a nifty metasearch engine, available to anyone who searches the web. In addition to providing general web metasearches, it offers specialized metasearches of four subject areas - health, news, government and money. Everything about Query Server is, clear, compact, efficient and fast. When you use it, you know you're in the hands of a professional.
Web Search: (To get to the search page, click on Web under Search Pages on the upper left side of the page.) Query Server accesses 10 major search engines - AltaVista, AOL, Direct Hit, Excite, FAST, HotBot, MSN, Northern Light, Sprinks, and Yahoo! (Notably missing is Google.) You can choose to search any number of these engines.
Search Tips
There's a drop-down menu under the search box with the choices All of the above terms - to require that all the words you enter appear in each result and Any of the above terms - to return results with all or any number of the search words.
Query Server supports quotation marks to enclose phrases, the Boolean operators AND, OR , NOT and NEAR and the asterisk to search for web pages that contain your search word followed by any ending (e.g., invest* will retrieve items containing investor, investing, investment, etc.)
There is also a menu for choosing the maximum number of results you want to retrieve, another which which lets you choose how long the search should last, and a third menu that gives you three options for organizing the result clusters (groups of results) that Query Server returns to you - by content (subject), by site and content, and by site.
Results with Added Value
The organization, clarity and informativeness of Query Servers's results add greatly to their usefulness, and reduce the time it takes to find the most relevant results for your purposes. Items retrieved from a search all appear on the same page, and are arranged in groups called result clusters.
After your search, you're shown exactly how many results were found and from which search engines. Then you're given a list of clusters of results with the amount of items in each cluster.
For example, when I searched using the phrase "corporate bond funds", I retrieved 149 results in 14 clusters. Since I had chosen the result clusters to be organized by content, some of the groups listed were bonds funds, mutual funds, bonds performance, fixed income, etc. The same search organized by site resulted in clusters for the Vanguard site, CNN site, Sun Trust site, etc. You can select any cluster and be brought to the particular search results of that group.
Each result includes, title, description, relevance rating, size, date, search engine it was retrieved from, and url.
Specialized Searches That are Fast and Wide-Ranging.
Query Server offers specialized searches about four subjects - News, Health, Money and Government, and the search engine selections in all categories are excellent. You can use the same search operators as you did in the web search, and the retrieved items are returned in the same form as web search results. (To get to the specialized search pages, click on the subject you need under Search Pages on the upper left side of the page.)
Health Search is especially notable as it includes a majority of medical search engines appropriate for research instead of the chiefly consumer health engines that most specialized health searches offer. Search engines accessed include Medline, Medscape Clinical Content, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Johns Hopkins Infectious Diseases, Medscape News, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, and others.
Health Search can be particularly helpful when you're looking for reputable research studies on a topic that relates to health. For example, to try to find research on one of the herbal remedies that is popular now, I entered:
garlic AND effects
I retrieved 124 results, many of which were directly relevant to my topic.
Money Search, in contrast, is basically geared to consumers, searching such engines as CNNfn, Investor Guide, Money Magazine, Smart Money, and others. News Search accesses 11 newspapers and news services, while Government Search accesses 13 US government agencies and databases.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/73471/2
If you've been accessing the web since the mid-90's, you've heard of Open Text. It was one of the first major search engines on the Internet, developed by a company of the same name. Eventually, the Open Text Company decided to change its focus and concentrate on selling their search systems to businesses, and the Open Text search engine disappeared.
Query Server is one of the products Open Text is selling, but it's also a nifty metasearch engine, available to anyone who searches the web. In addition to providing general web metasearches, it offers specialized metasearches of four subject areas - health, news, government and money. Everything about Query Server is, clear, compact, efficient and fast. When you use it, you know you're in the hands of a professional.
Web Search: (To get to the search page, click on Web under Search Pages on the upper left side of the page.) Query Server accesses 10 major search engines - AltaVista, AOL, Direct Hit, Excite, FAST, HotBot, MSN, Northern Light, Sprinks, and Yahoo! (Notably missing is Google.) You can choose to search any number of these engines.
Search Tips
There's a drop-down menu under the search box with the choices All of the above terms - to require that all the words you enter appear in each result and Any of the above terms - to return results with all or any number of the search words.
Query Server supports quotation marks to enclose phrases, the Boolean operators AND, OR , NOT and NEAR and the asterisk to search for web pages that contain your search word followed by any ending (e.g., invest* will retrieve items containing investor, investing, investment, etc.)
There is also a menu for choosing the maximum number of results you want to retrieve, another which which lets you choose how long the search should last, and a third menu that gives you three options for organizing the result clusters (groups of results) that Query Server returns to you - by content (subject), by site and content, and by site.
Results with Added Value
The organization, clarity and informativeness of Query Servers's results add greatly to their usefulness, and reduce the time it takes to find the most relevant results for your purposes. Items retrieved from a search all appear on the same page, and are arranged in groups called result clusters.
After your search, you're shown exactly how many results were found and from which search engines. Then you're given a list of clusters of results with the amount of items in each cluster.
For example, when I searched using the phrase "corporate bond funds", I retrieved 149 results in 14 clusters. Since I had chosen the result clusters to be organized by content, some of the groups listed were bonds funds, mutual funds, bonds performance, fixed income, etc. The same search organized by site resulted in clusters for the Vanguard site, CNN site, Sun Trust site, etc. You can select any cluster and be brought to the particular search results of that group.
Each result includes, title, description, relevance rating, size, date, search engine it was retrieved from, and url.
Specialized Searches That are Fast and Wide-Ranging.
Query Server offers specialized searches about four subjects - News, Health, Money and Government, and the search engine selections in all categories are excellent. You can use the same search operators as you did in the web search, and the retrieved items are returned in the same form as web search results. (To get to the specialized search pages, click on the subject you need under Search Pages on the upper left side of the page.)
Health Search is especially notable as it includes a majority of medical search engines appropriate for research instead of the chiefly consumer health engines that most specialized health searches offer. Search engines accessed include Medline, Medscape Clinical Content, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Johns Hopkins Infectious Diseases, Medscape News, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, and others.
Health Search can be particularly helpful when you're looking for reputable research studies on a topic that relates to health. For example, to try to find research on one of the herbal remedies that is popular now, I entered:
garlic AND effects
I retrieved 124 results, many of which were directly relevant to my topic.
Money Search, in contrast, is basically geared to consumers, searching such engines as CNNfn, Investor Guide, Money Magazine, Smart Money, and others. News Search accesses 11 newspapers and news services, while Government Search accesses 13 US government agencies and databases.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/73471/2
Metasearch Engine Review: Vivisimo
isimo is an excellent metasearch engine that also provides access to a number of large, authoritative specialized search engines. Altogether, it's a superb research tool.
Vivisimo (which is trying to sell its product to corporate customers) calls itself a clustering engine rather than a search engine because it organizes the results of other engines into groups or clusters. It seems to be designed to make finding information as convenient as possible for the searcher. Using Vivisimo, you can approach a subject from several orientations, refine your search, and visit sites with a minimum of time and effort.
In addition to accessing 12 web search engines, Vivisimo searches definitive search engines in the fields of health (Medline (or PubMed)), business (Business.com), government (FirstGov), patents (Delphion), news (CNN, World News, others), shopping (Yahoo!Shopping) and auctions (Yahoo!Auctions and eBay).
A RESEARCH POWERHOUSE
Vivisimo is useful for many types of research, but because of its particular combination of general search engines and specialized engines, it's ideal for any type of health-related research. For example, suppose you wanted to find information about the safety and effectiveness of influenza vaccines, new vaccine patents, and news and business developments having to do with vaccines.
You might start your query in Vivisimo by typing influenza vaccine or flu vaccination in the search box and doing a web search. Then, you might choose to search the specialized search engines relevant to your subject by selecting a category in the drop-down menu next to the search box.
If you elected to search Medline (or PubMed), Patents, and News, you would retrieve abstracts of articles from the leading medical journals, abstracts of the latest patents and current news articles
You might refine your search by adding such words (depending on their relevance to the engine you're searching) as safety, effectiveness, delivery systems, demand, etc. to your query.
SEARCH TIPS
You can use the plus and minus signs to require or forbid a word, in addition to the Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT and NEAR. In my experience, quotation marks to signify a phrase also work although Vivisimo's Search Syntax Page does not include them.
It's advisable to go the search engines you're not familiar with to see which search operators they accept because Vivisimo will only submit your search to the engines that support the operators you enter. (For example, Medline (or PubMed) uses Boolean operators, while FirstGov does not).
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/78816
Vivisimo (which is trying to sell its product to corporate customers) calls itself a clustering engine rather than a search engine because it organizes the results of other engines into groups or clusters. It seems to be designed to make finding information as convenient as possible for the searcher. Using Vivisimo, you can approach a subject from several orientations, refine your search, and visit sites with a minimum of time and effort.
In addition to accessing 12 web search engines, Vivisimo searches definitive search engines in the fields of health (Medline (or PubMed)), business (Business.com), government (FirstGov), patents (Delphion), news (CNN, World News, others), shopping (Yahoo!Shopping) and auctions (Yahoo!Auctions and eBay).
A RESEARCH POWERHOUSE
Vivisimo is useful for many types of research, but because of its particular combination of general search engines and specialized engines, it's ideal for any type of health-related research. For example, suppose you wanted to find information about the safety and effectiveness of influenza vaccines, new vaccine patents, and news and business developments having to do with vaccines.
You might start your query in Vivisimo by typing influenza vaccine or flu vaccination in the search box and doing a web search. Then, you might choose to search the specialized search engines relevant to your subject by selecting a category in the drop-down menu next to the search box.
If you elected to search Medline (or PubMed), Patents, and News, you would retrieve abstracts of articles from the leading medical journals, abstracts of the latest patents and current news articles
You might refine your search by adding such words (depending on their relevance to the engine you're searching) as safety, effectiveness, delivery systems, demand, etc. to your query.
SEARCH TIPS
You can use the plus and minus signs to require or forbid a word, in addition to the Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT and NEAR. In my experience, quotation marks to signify a phrase also work although Vivisimo's Search Syntax Page does not include them.
It's advisable to go the search engines you're not familiar with to see which search operators they accept because Vivisimo will only submit your search to the engines that support the operators you enter. (For example, Medline (or PubMed) uses Boolean operators, while FirstGov does not).
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/78816
Reviews of Two First-Rate Consumer Search Engines
In light of the current recession and rising unemployment, it is more important than ever to be an informed consumer. Consumer search engines can help you to identify high-quality items, gain access to product reviews and locate online merchants who sell the products. Two of the best consumer search engines are ConsumerSearch and Active Buyer's Guide.
ConsumerSearch - COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
You can get an education about hundreds of products using ConsumerSearch. This search engine not only provides valuable background information and reviews of products, it furnishes links to other product reviews which it rates for credibility. In addition it displays the names of online vendors who sell recommended products.
Full Story: For example, suppose you need a new refrigerator, but have no idea what criteria to use in judging this item. After choosing the category Refrigerator, click on Full Story and you'll get a complete description of the different types of refrigerators (e.g., freezer on top, on the bottom, side by side), various product features (e.g., adjustable shelves, icemakers), and an analysis of the price ranges for different models.
Also discussed in Full Story are the opinions of various reviewers and their consensus (if any) concerning the best models for different needs and situations.
Fast Answers: If you're familiar with the features of refrigerators and just want to find out which models are recommended, you can select Fast Answers. Displayed here are the top refrigerators in each category with a paragraph summarizing the research about them. In addition, you're presented with some general information about refrigerators.
All Reviews: To see reviews of refrigerators, click on All Reviews. Here you'll find links to reviews both on the Internet and in publications that you can buy (e.g., Consumer Reports). The reviews are rated by ConsumerSearch, and include discussions about the way the products are tested, and how reliable and informative the reviews are.
Where to Buy: Finally, you can click on Where To Buy to find links to approved online outlets that sell recommended refrigerators. In addition, there are links to several shopping search engines.
ACTIVE BUYER'S GUIDE - HELPING YOU FIND THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR NEEDS
Active Buyer's Guide is like ConsumerSearch in that it contains a lot of information about the products it covers, however it encompasses far fewer products. Unlike ConsumerSearch, it also provides a search engine and an interactive buyer's guide that can help you find a product specifically suited to your needs.
Let's continue with our example of trying to find information that will be helpful in buying a new refrigerator. After selecting the category Refrigerators, you're offered three categories of information - Refrigerator Decision Guide, Basic Search, and Tips for Buying Refrigerators.
Tips for Buying: If don't know what to base your purchasing decision on, click on Tips For Buying Refrigerators. Here you'll find information about several features of refrigerators, (e.g., price, freezer location, shelves, bins, etc.), and a discussion of why they may be important to people with particular needs.
Basic Search: Your next step might be to search for products by selecting Basic Search . The Active Buyer's Guide search system provides two ways to search - by specific brand or model, or by using its menu to specify the features you want. For example in refrigerators, you can specify the price, brand, color, freezer location and size. I have found this search feature to be extremely useful and effective.
Each result includes a link to a picture of the product, a list of over 40 features (including color, capacity, yearly energy consumption, refrigerator shelf type, etc.) retail outlets selling the product, reviews of the product, and the price. (Of course, the list of features varies by product.)
Selecting a result transports you to a page for that specific refrigerator which includes links to product reviews and online vendors who sell the item, plus links to general information about refrigerator features and a glossary of terms relating to refrigerators.
Side-by-Side Charts: A fabulous feature of Active Buyer's Guide is that you can compare all the features of an unlimited number of resulting models in a side-by-side chart by simply checking the Compare box included for each result.
Decision Guide: The Decision Guide (in this case Refrigerator Decision Guide) is an interactive question and answer exercise which is supposed to provide you with a list of the products that best fit your needs. You're asked to specify which features you care about most, rating how desirable a particular feature is to you. The "tradeoffs" are where it really gets tricky. For example, would you rather have an icemaker and one bin or three bins and no icemaker?
My attempt to use the Decision Guide did not result in a list of products appropriate for me. You may have a different experience.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/81237/2
ConsumerSearch - COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
You can get an education about hundreds of products using ConsumerSearch. This search engine not only provides valuable background information and reviews of products, it furnishes links to other product reviews which it rates for credibility. In addition it displays the names of online vendors who sell recommended products.
Full Story: For example, suppose you need a new refrigerator, but have no idea what criteria to use in judging this item. After choosing the category Refrigerator, click on Full Story and you'll get a complete description of the different types of refrigerators (e.g., freezer on top, on the bottom, side by side), various product features (e.g., adjustable shelves, icemakers), and an analysis of the price ranges for different models.
Also discussed in Full Story are the opinions of various reviewers and their consensus (if any) concerning the best models for different needs and situations.
Fast Answers: If you're familiar with the features of refrigerators and just want to find out which models are recommended, you can select Fast Answers. Displayed here are the top refrigerators in each category with a paragraph summarizing the research about them. In addition, you're presented with some general information about refrigerators.
All Reviews: To see reviews of refrigerators, click on All Reviews. Here you'll find links to reviews both on the Internet and in publications that you can buy (e.g., Consumer Reports). The reviews are rated by ConsumerSearch, and include discussions about the way the products are tested, and how reliable and informative the reviews are.
Where to Buy: Finally, you can click on Where To Buy to find links to approved online outlets that sell recommended refrigerators. In addition, there are links to several shopping search engines.
ACTIVE BUYER'S GUIDE - HELPING YOU FIND THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR NEEDS
Active Buyer's Guide is like ConsumerSearch in that it contains a lot of information about the products it covers, however it encompasses far fewer products. Unlike ConsumerSearch, it also provides a search engine and an interactive buyer's guide that can help you find a product specifically suited to your needs.
Let's continue with our example of trying to find information that will be helpful in buying a new refrigerator. After selecting the category Refrigerators, you're offered three categories of information - Refrigerator Decision Guide, Basic Search, and Tips for Buying Refrigerators.
Tips for Buying: If don't know what to base your purchasing decision on, click on Tips For Buying Refrigerators. Here you'll find information about several features of refrigerators, (e.g., price, freezer location, shelves, bins, etc.), and a discussion of why they may be important to people with particular needs.
Basic Search: Your next step might be to search for products by selecting Basic Search . The Active Buyer's Guide search system provides two ways to search - by specific brand or model, or by using its menu to specify the features you want. For example in refrigerators, you can specify the price, brand, color, freezer location and size. I have found this search feature to be extremely useful and effective.
Each result includes a link to a picture of the product, a list of over 40 features (including color, capacity, yearly energy consumption, refrigerator shelf type, etc.) retail outlets selling the product, reviews of the product, and the price. (Of course, the list of features varies by product.)
Selecting a result transports you to a page for that specific refrigerator which includes links to product reviews and online vendors who sell the item, plus links to general information about refrigerator features and a glossary of terms relating to refrigerators.
Side-by-Side Charts: A fabulous feature of Active Buyer's Guide is that you can compare all the features of an unlimited number of resulting models in a side-by-side chart by simply checking the Compare box included for each result.
Decision Guide: The Decision Guide (in this case Refrigerator Decision Guide) is an interactive question and answer exercise which is supposed to provide you with a list of the products that best fit your needs. You're asked to specify which features you care about most, rating how desirable a particular feature is to you. The "tradeoffs" are where it really gets tricky. For example, would you rather have an icemaker and one bin or three bins and no icemaker?
My attempt to use the Decision Guide did not result in a list of products appropriate for me. You may have a different experience.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/81237/2
Reviews of Two Legal Search Engines for Consumers
'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88089/2
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88089/2
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