dcat
10-11-2006, 06:15 PM
Yesterday, I received a private message from a thoughtful TF member asking about the veracity of a certain shocking email circulating in the web. After I checked it myself I found out that without a doubt the email was one of those prank email messages. After replying her, I got the idea of posting here some of the tips on how to look for and choose quality information on web contents such as emails and articles posted on the web, and also how to verify their quality.
If you want to know more about some things, the first thing you have to do is to (1)read more about them. Although the internet is the most convenient way of finding quick answers, be careful not to be led stray by dubious sites.
In the beginning, you must learn to (2)master the art of "googling" - undoubtedly google is the best search engine there is. Do your best to heed the following instructions:
1. Master google's basic search (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html#lucky)
2. Don't hesitate to do advance searches (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html)
3. Remember and effectively use the google operators (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/cheatsheet.html)
Mastering these three things not only will make your internet experience more efficient but you will also be more knowledgeable about many things. These are the lists that you will get from mastering google search engine:
a. You will save time
b. You will have more successful search results about a company, a person, a product, or the contents you are interested with...
c. You will become more internet-savvy
For example, if you want to know more about me or my posts, try to google for "dcat" and the dominant phrases in my posts. This way, you'll know whether or not I'm plagiarizing my writings, and if ever i exist somewhere else.:)
(3) Choose better sites from the list of results google returned. Usually question-and-answer sites are ok, but it's better if you could get answers from news or feature articles from websites of companies with impeccable reputation.
It is of course better to get your article on Kim Jong Il at Foreign Policy (http://www.foreignpolicy.co m/index.php), Time (http://www.time.com/time/), BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/), The Economists (http://economist.com/index.html), etc. rather than some blog sites. Of course, certain specialty blog sites can have quality contents sometimes, but most of them on the web are just relatively unreliable. One specialty blog site that really caught my attention lately is Frog in A Well (http://www.froginawell.net/), a weblog for scholars, graduate students, and professors of East Asian History.
Also, (4) remember to verify your information at other websites - one is deficient, two is still not enough, three is ok, four or more is better. Choose to read journals and articles from professional sites according to your queries. As an example, question-and-answer sites on some illnesses are just not so dependable like medical journals and reviews, especially in comparison to directly verifying with real doctor.
One last thing is to (5) avoid biased websites. You will know whether a website tends to be biased when all the things written at their site are unanimously critical of some point of views, thinking, or products. It is better to avoid these sites because most usually they are closed to outside views and are therefore one-sided. If you really must get information from these kind of websites, please be sure to visit their counterparts - don't worry there are many of them around.
For example, MacAddict (http://www.macaddict.com/) is a windows-peecee-billgates bashing son-of-a-gun! You'll never hear anything good about windows there. So, although they are quite hilarious and admittedly addictive, be forewarned and don't tell me that I didn't warn you. Hmmn on a second thought, maybe MacAddict is just a specialty website intent to amuse Mac fans by ridiculing the windows world, so this might not be a good example. Maybe the best examples are certain religion or country-bashing websites. You'll never get all the sides of the story from such kind of sites.
Some more hot tips:
1. Remember, if you don't understand a word like codec, just type "define: codec" at google search boxes. Master the search operators...
2. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is the fastest growing, free, high-quality, and open encyclopedia on the net. Use it to look for general information. Although some entries are thought to be biased, most of the entries have got good quality.
3. For free country study summaries, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html) is great.
4. For country-specific news, Yahoo's got some of the interesting collections (http://fullcoverage.yahoo.c om/fc/World/)of news updated everyday. Click on one country and it will reveal all related news, government sites, and country resources.
5. Avoid encouraging get-rich mails, chain mails, solicitary mails, explosive mails, threat mails, by either forwarding or answering them. The best you can do is to ignore them, or check them out first before even encouraging those thoughts in your head.
Good luck to everyone, I certainly hope that this has help you in some ways. :)
If you want to know more about some things, the first thing you have to do is to (1)read more about them. Although the internet is the most convenient way of finding quick answers, be careful not to be led stray by dubious sites.
In the beginning, you must learn to (2)master the art of "googling" - undoubtedly google is the best search engine there is. Do your best to heed the following instructions:
1. Master google's basic search (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html#lucky)
2. Don't hesitate to do advance searches (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html)
3. Remember and effectively use the google operators (http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/cheatsheet.html)
Mastering these three things not only will make your internet experience more efficient but you will also be more knowledgeable about many things. These are the lists that you will get from mastering google search engine:
a. You will save time
b. You will have more successful search results about a company, a person, a product, or the contents you are interested with...
c. You will become more internet-savvy
For example, if you want to know more about me or my posts, try to google for "dcat" and the dominant phrases in my posts. This way, you'll know whether or not I'm plagiarizing my writings, and if ever i exist somewhere else.:)
(3) Choose better sites from the list of results google returned. Usually question-and-answer sites are ok, but it's better if you could get answers from news or feature articles from websites of companies with impeccable reputation.
It is of course better to get your article on Kim Jong Il at Foreign Policy (http://www.foreignpolicy.co m/index.php), Time (http://www.time.com/time/), BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/), The Economists (http://economist.com/index.html), etc. rather than some blog sites. Of course, certain specialty blog sites can have quality contents sometimes, but most of them on the web are just relatively unreliable. One specialty blog site that really caught my attention lately is Frog in A Well (http://www.froginawell.net/), a weblog for scholars, graduate students, and professors of East Asian History.
Also, (4) remember to verify your information at other websites - one is deficient, two is still not enough, three is ok, four or more is better. Choose to read journals and articles from professional sites according to your queries. As an example, question-and-answer sites on some illnesses are just not so dependable like medical journals and reviews, especially in comparison to directly verifying with real doctor.
One last thing is to (5) avoid biased websites. You will know whether a website tends to be biased when all the things written at their site are unanimously critical of some point of views, thinking, or products. It is better to avoid these sites because most usually they are closed to outside views and are therefore one-sided. If you really must get information from these kind of websites, please be sure to visit their counterparts - don't worry there are many of them around.
For example, MacAddict (http://www.macaddict.com/) is a windows-peecee-billgates bashing son-of-a-gun! You'll never hear anything good about windows there. So, although they are quite hilarious and admittedly addictive, be forewarned and don't tell me that I didn't warn you. Hmmn on a second thought, maybe MacAddict is just a specialty website intent to amuse Mac fans by ridiculing the windows world, so this might not be a good example. Maybe the best examples are certain religion or country-bashing websites. You'll never get all the sides of the story from such kind of sites.
Some more hot tips:
1. Remember, if you don't understand a word like codec, just type "define: codec" at google search boxes. Master the search operators...
2. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is the fastest growing, free, high-quality, and open encyclopedia on the net. Use it to look for general information. Although some entries are thought to be biased, most of the entries have got good quality.
3. For free country study summaries, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html) is great.
4. For country-specific news, Yahoo's got some of the interesting collections (http://fullcoverage.yahoo.c om/fc/World/)of news updated everyday. Click on one country and it will reveal all related news, government sites, and country resources.
5. Avoid encouraging get-rich mails, chain mails, solicitary mails, explosive mails, threat mails, by either forwarding or answering them. The best you can do is to ignore them, or check them out first before even encouraging those thoughts in your head.
Good luck to everyone, I certainly hope that this has help you in some ways. :)