Happy Holidays from Geek For Hire, Inc.

Whatever your religion or whatever holidays you celebrate, Geek For Hire wishes you all Happy Holidays!

We all celebrate the Solstice though – Days start getting longer. A minute here and a minute there and pretty soon we won’t be waking up before the sun.  Yay!

Happy Holidays!Happy Holidays!

It’s not too late to get on our mailing list to receive coupons and discounts throughout the year.  Click to add yourself to the list and get our free Password Guide.

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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Overwhelmed by Google? Internet Searching Tips Save You Time!

Have you ever searched for something on the Internet, using Google or Duck-Duck-Go, and been so frustrated with the results?  You KNOW what you’re looking for, but you get back so many links that are not close to what you really want. When I’m searching for something, I’ll generally just type a word or phrase into the search box. Sometimes I just get too many results back. I’ve picked up a few tips along the way that may be helpful to you too. When I’m looking for something specific, I’ll use one of the Internet searching tips listed below.Internet Searching

Internet Searching Tips:

You might also be interested in these Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac or Windows.

Exact Match:

When you use quotation marks, you only search for what is inside the quotes.  For example:

Women “Science Technology Engineering Math”

…will bring up information about Women in STEM fields.

Exclusion:

When you use the minus sign, you’ll exclude that information from your search.  For example:Internet Searching

“Ada Lovelace” -Babbage

….will bring up information about Ada Lovelace without references to Charles Babbage.

Wild Card – Asterisk:

Instead of typing in “Women Engineers”, and then a second search for “Women in Engineering”, you can use a wildcard. When you use the asterisk after a word or partial word, you’ll get variations of that back. For example:

“Women Engin*”

…..will bring back results about Women in Engineering, Women Engineers, Engineering Programs for Women, etc.

Wild Card – Question Mark:

Similarly, you can use a question mark for a single character. For example:

Wom?n STEM

…will bring back links to womEn and individual womAn in the STEM fields

Specific Web Site:

Do you want to search within a specific web site?  Use “site:website”. For example:

“Wang Zhenyi” site:scientificwomen.net

….will bring up articles relating to astronomer Wang Zhenyi at ScientificWomen.  (She broke gender barriers in China in the late 1700’s.)

Weather:

If you’re looking for weather in a specific location, type “weather” and the zip code or city name. For example:

Weather 80302

…..will show the current weather in Boulder Colorado

Location:

If you want to find something in a particular location, enter the location and then type what you’re looking for. For example:

Colorado “Ski Report”

…will bring up a list of ski conditions at Colorado resorts

Internet Searching with Google’s Search Tabs:

Have you used Google’s Search Tabs? They are located underneath Google’s search bar and provide you with additional options. For example:

WEB     NEWS     IMAGES     VIDEOS     BOOKS     MORE     SEARCH TOOLS

News:

If you are looking specifically for a news story that occurred in the last 24 hours,  follow these steps:

  • Firstly, Enter your search terms in the search bar.
  • Secondly, Click on the News tab.
  • Third, Click on the Search Tools Tab
  • Last, Click on “Anytime” and select “24 hours” from the drop-down menu

Images:

If you’re looking for an image, enter a description in the search bar and then click on the Images Tab.  If you want to fine-tune your search, then you can add other criteria.  Click on “Search Tools” and then, select the color, type of image, usage rights, etc.

Google Cheat Sheet:

You can also print out this cheat sheet from Google:

Internet Search Tool

Have you used any of these Internet Searching tips?  Are there other tips you use?  Please share them in the comments below!

More Internet Searching Options:

Did you know you can use these tips on other Google pages as well?  Try it when you’re looking for something specific in your Gmail or Google Calendar.

Conclusion:

Using these Internet Searching Tips will save you time!

Did you figure out the theme of this post?  Share it with #WomenInTechnology or #WomenInSTEM!

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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Private Search Engines & Your Internet Safety

When we first started using Google, who would have thought that we’d want Private Search Engines in 2018? Privacy on the internet is something we used to take for granted. No one knew that we were logging into weird sites or making questionable purchases.  That’s all changed now.  Google tracks us.  Facebook tracks us. Even Amazon knows that we bought those pink Ugg boots at Marshalls.

Last year I learned about a search engine that doesn’t track our searches. I have installed it on my phone, my tablet, and my laptop.  It was easy to do.  While my level of trust with technology is somewhat lower than it was five years ago, I do feel good about using DuckDuckGo.

But as I started researching this article, I wondered what other search engines are out there. It turns out that there are several from which to choose.

PRIVATE SEARCH ENGINES:

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is the one of the first private search engines I became aware of.  I found that the app was easy to install on all of my devices.  I like their privacy policy which is described on their website:Private Search Engines

DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell.”

However, SearchEncrypt doesn’t think DuckDuckGo is as secure as it could be.  Here’s a description of its major flaw on the SearchEncrypt website:

DuckDuckGo is a private search engine. It is adamant about spreading privacy around the internet. However, there is one issue we discovered that raises privacy concerns. Your search terms, while they may be sent over your network in an encrypted form, show up in plain text in browsing history.  DDG may work well for reducing advertiser tracking, avoiding filter bubbles, and limiting data profiling, however as this post explains, it may not offer the protection from surveillance organizations that some think.”

StartPage:

StartPage was originally developed in New York as the Ixquick private search engine.  It was then acquired by a Dutch company and so most of its growth was in Europe.  Now, they are becoming more well known around the world, including the US. They do utilize Google to get their results. I like how they define “Personal Information”

“Information is regarded as personal when it tells something about a human being who is or can be (uniquely) identified.
This definition stems from European law, which applies to StartPage, and is intentionally broad in order to provide a high level of privacy protection. This means, for example, that not just names and e-mail addresses can be personal information, but also numbers or other identifiers, such as your IP-address, to the extent that they link other information to a specific human being.”

SearchEncrypt:

According to HackerNoon, this is a newer edition to the private search engines. But SearchEncrypt is gaining users.  Here is HackerNoon‘s description:

“This private search engine uses local encryption to secure your searches. It combines with AES-256 encryption with Secure Sockets Layer encryption. Search Encrypt then retrieves your search results from its network of search partners. After you’re done searching, your search terms expire so they are private even if someone else has access to your computer.  Search Encrypt is a relatively new addition to this list, but it is growing quickly. Its Alexa Traffic Rank of 878 indicates that it receives millions of visitors daily.”

More About Private Search Engines:

If you’re looking for other private Search Engines, you can find a few listed in this article.

How do you do your Internet searches?  Are you using Google, Yahoo!, or something else?

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past fifteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website, or give us a call on 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet.  I’ll try that next!   Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 days for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

(Any links to products or services in this post may be affiliate links. If they are, we may receive a small commission when you click on it. Rest assured, your price will be the same!)

 

How To: Internet Searching Tips

Internet Searching Tips:

More than once I have been extremely frustrated trying to find something on the internet.  Internet searching either gives WAY too much information or info that isn’t relevant. Most of the tips I will share with you I’ve picked up bit by bit.  I’m hoping they will help you.

Exact Match:

When you use quotation marks, you only search for what is inside the quotes.  For example:

Coffeehouses “live music”

will bring up all the coffeehouses that have live music.

Exclusion:

When you use the minus sign, you’ll exclude that information from your search.  For example:

“Scottish Novels: -“Outlander”

will bring up information about many novels that occur in Scotland except the Outlander series.

Wild Card:

When you use the asterisk with another word or phrase, you’ll get lots of different options. For example:

Hollywood *

will provide results like “Hollywood Bowl”, “Hollywood Blacklist”, and “Hollywood movies”.

Specific Web Site:

Do you want to search within a specific web site?  Use “site:website”. For example:

“Jerry Lewis” site:nyt.com

will bring up articles relating to Jerry Lewis on the New York Times site.

More:

Have you used Google’s Search Tabs? Underneath Google’s search bar, there are a number of options. For example:

WEB     NEWS     IMAGES     VIDEOS     BOOKS     MORE     SEARCH TOOLS

News:

If you are looking specifically for a news story that occurred in the last 24 hours,  follow these steps:

  • Firstly, Enter your search terms in the search bar.
  • Secondly, Click on the News tab.
  • Third, Click on the Search Tools Tab
  • Last, Click on “Anytime” and select “24 hours” from the drop-down menu

Images:

If you’re looking for an image, enter a description in the search bar and then click on the Images Tab.  If you want to fine-tune your search, then you can add other criteria.  Click on “Search Tools” and then, select the color, type of image, usage rights, etc.

Location:

If you want to find something in a particular location, click on “Search Tools”, then click on “Location”, then type in where you would like to search.  For example:

“Hot Springs” California

will bring up a list of all the hot springs in California.

You can also print out this cheat sheet from Google:

Internet Search Tool

Have you used any of these Internet Searching tips?  Are there other tips you use?  Please share them in the comments below!

Conclusion:

Using these Internet Searching Tips will save you time!

Information about Geek For Hire, Inc.

I’ve created a Free Report on what to look for to protect yourself from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly.  You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as well as remote service throughout North America.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years.  We like the free and fast shipping.  With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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