The Internet Search

The difficulty of trying to find information on the internet is all the links taking you into the bowels of the unexplored realms. Web searching is a very time consuming process. I frequently get lost looking for something by becoming side-tracked by all the links in whatever site I chose to open.

I feel like I must have some sort of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) when I'm doing a search for information. By the way, I am not ADD. I have a son who is ADHD, that's ADD with Hyperactivity thrown in, so I do know what it looks like. Not a pleasant thing for anyone to have to deal with. OK, so I'm searching for a topic. I input something vague like Medical Transcription and I get a list of 4,330,000. That was in Google. The same list in Bing is still 100 pages.

After finding a site that looks interesting and opening it, I find it is full of blue underlined words. These words are also interesting so I have to click on a couple of them. I get redirected to another site with more links. Pretty soon there are so many windows open, my computer is groaning at me and I can't find the one I originally opened. So...I close all but one window and hit my search engine history. Of course, I used the back button! My finger got tired after 50!

I know, I know! "Use keywords, Dummy!" I can usually narrow down my options, but I still end up clicking on something that pulls me into the deep pit of bright, shiny links lying in wait for me!

I won't give up though. Most of the time, I just have to narrow my focus to the first few pages of listings and refrain from clicking on embedded links. Do you know how difficult that can be when all you want from life is to KNOW things?

I think I need to start making a list of what I'm looking for and sticking to it. Things like:

• what's the general subject?
• what specifically am I looking for?
• does the site have a search feature?
• does the site require registration and login? (I'm getting tired of those...but I do need them.)
• does it look like the information was gathered in a well-thought-out way or does it look like a kindergartner designed it? (Run fast if it's the latter!)

I'm sure you can come up with more questions or more organized list, but you get the idea.

During my expeditions into the pit of information, I do occasionally come across some accidental gem, with so much to it that I just want to dive right in and swim in it's shiny brilliance. I usually add that to my favorites so I can explore it at my leisure another time. Some of these even get to stay there! I love it when that happens.

I guess when it comes right down to it, it's all a matter of perspective. I have to decide what I'm looking for and if I don't find it within a couple of clicks, is it important enough to keep going or is it just for the joy of learning and can I start with a new search.

Of course there's the old stand-by of games. But that just brings on a whole new ADD search!

My clicking finger is tired just thinking about it. Happy searching!