A Handy Tip To Help Find Useful Online Information [1]

Whatever you want, or need, to know about, the internet is probably your best place to start hunting for information.  But while many people will try to advise you on what are the best search terms to type into Google or Bing, there's actually more to effective online searching than merely coming up with a good set of keywords.

For example, it's often useful to consider what type of information you want returned.  If you want to know about, say, household security or the Battle of Hastings, don't just search for those terms.  Add qualifiers in order to try to find authoritative, reliable information.  My favourite such qualifier at the moment is "conference presentation" or "conference proceedings".  Chances are, you'll find the information you're looking for in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, prepared by someone who knows what they're talking about and made available free of charge.

As another example, you may know that I'm involved with Microsoft SharePoint in my day job.  A couple of months ago, a major SharePoint conference took place in Barcelona, Spain.  Registering to attend the conference would have cost around $1000.  But all of the presentations can now be downloaded free of charge from http://www.sharepointeurope.com/community/member/presentation-archive [3] by anyone who's interested.

So here's my top tip for the week.  When you need the low-down on something, and you need it to be accurate, by specific about the type of information you're looking for.  General web pages and blog posts are good, but conference presentations are often better.