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We do hope it is not true that this page is "...likely to remain
unseen by people of the male persuasion because they're hopeless at
finding their way about on the Internet" as someone was overheard
remarking the other day! Tom Pearson ponders the matter:
Admittedly, regular visits to any public Internet
facility reveal a great many couples sitting before the screen together,
and in most cases it is the woman who is actually working the computer.
This may be because men are brilliant at getting women to do all the work
while they sit and enjoy relaxing but, somehow, we doubt it.
More likely is the possibility that most men do not like
doing things in public at which they cannot be guaranteed to shine,
combined with the fact that many men seem woefully unaware of the wealth of
information and entertainment that is out there on the Internet.
Searching for the information one wants, and actually
finding it, can be difficult for the uninitiated. Fred Bishop, a recent
user of the Web who has managed to get to grips with it, explains the
challenge like this:
"If your wife asks whether you want breakfast and
you say "Yes", she is none the wiser as to what you would like
to eat. If you leave it up to her to give you whatever 'breakfast' means
to her, you may or may not like what you get. There may be too little, or
too much.
If she asks you what you want for breakfast and you say
"Eggs", you may end up with fried, boiled, scrambled, poached or
even raw eggs. To get what you want, you need to be specific, as in
"Two boiled eggs and two slices of toast. please."
Fred is absolutely right. Searching on the Internet requires
specifics. It's no
good just putting 'cars' in a search engine if what you are actually
looking for is a specific make and model. If you want to buy a vehicle, or
sell one, you want to be sure that the sites you look at will be helpful
in the country where you are thinking of making the transaction. A great
deal in Scotland may not be much use to you if you are in
Australia...
If you are new to searching the Internet, we suggest http://www.google.com
as a very good place to start your searching exercises.
If various factors are important to your search, link
them with '+' signs. If, for example, you want to find out where used cars
are to be bought and sold via the Internet and you want to purchase one in
France, you might type in the following search string:
buy+used+car+France
to get a list of sites up in the first place. The more
specifics you include, the more likely it is that the sort of website you
want to see will be listed in the results of your search. Google
allows you to do a search within your search so, if the list is huge, you
might make your new search within the search include a make and model of
car perhaps. Experimenting will reveal the best string to use. If the
first attempt doesn't do it, start again, with a different set of words.
The important thing is to persist until you have discovered the formula
that brings up the list of pages you do want to see.
Whatever we do, we cannot let inexperience stop us from
getting to grips with this new technology. Apart from the fact that this
is one realm in which gender shouldn't put anyone at an advantage or
disadvantage, there is too much useful and interesting stuff out there to
see, once you discover the secrets of getting past the dross, for anyone
to want to miss out on it all! Happy searching!
Tom Pearson for MarineZine
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