web searching (was: Web site on multimedia glossary (related to graphics))

[Greg Holmes <holmegm -at- attbi -dot- com>]

mathew -at- modena -dot- stpn -dot- soft -dot- net wrote:

>All u ppl who wasted energy and bandwidth rebuking me (which just
>reflects your capacity for wasting time) here is what I found.
>
>http://ftp.yars.free.net/pub/doc/SGI/glossary.html
>http://www.ryanlesser.com/risdweb/html/glossary.html
>http://www.directron.com/videoglossary.html

I'm not directing this at Matt specifically; just loosely tying this to 
that thread.

Just thought I'd throw out a few web searching suggestions.  Ignore 'em 
if you don't need 'em.  I've just noticed, online and off, two major 
camps; those who are comfortable "googling", and those who aren't.  This 
leads to a lot of frustration when camp one asks camp two "have you 
searched for it"?.

1.  The total number of results is not relevant.

This is the biggie, where most in camp two seem to get intimidated.

"Oh no!  There's 986,438,235 results!  How on earth will I find anything 
in all that?"

That number is *not* relevant, and I almost wish google would just say 
"more than 100" or something.  Just look at the first page or two (or if 
you're really feeling plucky, three) of results, and see if you find 
something useful.  If not, refine your search.  The total number of 
results is *meaningless* (well, unless it is <10 or something).

2.  I was going to list more suggestions, but why?  These pages are 
actually quite useful:

http://www.google.com/help/basics.html

http://www.google.com/help/interpret.html
  (I like how they call line 'H' "statistics" - see 1. above)

http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html

As as we all know, nobody reads the Help ;)  But a trip or two to these 
pages when you can't find something can build good searching habits, so 
you won't need to visit them again.


HTH somebody.  Again, not directed at Matt, just tied very loosely to 
his thread.

Greg Holmes



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