September marks Google’s tenth birthday. They celebrated by announcing just what the world needs, another web browser. They call theirs, Chrome. Why would Google go to all the trouble of creating a new web browser, when there is a perfectly good one available? It’s called Firefox, and most people don’t even know that it exists!

Google has some perfectly good answers to that question. Since 1998 the way, web pages present their contents, has changed. Back in the nineties there was no video, and the use of sound was minimal. Web applications were a rarity. Now videos are everywhere, and applications on the web have become so sophisticated that it is possible to use web-based, word processors, spreadsheets, and other office type applications.

All this functionality requires, according to Google, speed, stability, and security. They have addressed this by a fundamental change in browser design. In Chrome each tab in the browser window has its own environment, separate from others. This allows greater stability, because if one tab should fail due to a bug, only that tab crashes, not the whole browser. Security is enhanced, because there is no cross communication between the tabs. To address the issue of speed, Chrome has a new “engine”, they call “V8″, which speeds up the running of web applications. The code, that displays the web page, is also of a completely new design, allowing pages to appear much faster.

Google required this new approach as they are committed to computing in the cloud. That is, allowing people to use applications that do not run on their own PCs, but on Google’s servers, somewhere out there in the Internet. While this can be done with current browsers, it can be a little bit slow. By redesigning the browser, Google have openly declared that they are in direct competition with Microsoft for the future of computing. Cloud computing, sometimes called Software As A Service (SaaS), is effectively positioned to replace Microsoft Office, and make the Windows operating system almost redundant.

But TANSTAAFL (as Simon Jester scrawls on the walls of the lunar colony in “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein). There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. The browser may be free to download but Google will want to recover the development costs, somehow. Google has, arguably, the largest database of individuals’ search details. By supplying these individuals with a browser, Google is now able to keep track of every page visited, as well. A much needed bonus, allowing those Google ads to be even more specific, and targeted to the individual, than they are now.

Chrome, at the time of writing, is only available for Windows. It has been released as a beta version, this means that there are bound to be some problems. Some have already been reported, and there are warnings that it may not be as secure as Google thinks.

Interestingly, one of the main developers of Chrome is ex-Aucklander Ben Goodger, who worked extensively on Firefox, concentrating on the extensions facility. Goodger joined Google in 2006, and immediately started work on Chrome. Unfortunately there is no extensions facility in Chrome. Extensions are one of the major features in Firefox, and Google have announced that extensions will be coming to Chrome.

For Chrome to succeed, Google has to battle against inertia. People are unlikely to change from Internet Explorer on a whim. Firefox, and the lesser known Opera browser have found this out. Sometimes, just being better, doesn’t mean that you get the largest market share.

• Search Engine Land – Google Is 10 Years Old? Finding The Real Google Birthday
• Wikipedia – TANSTAAFL
• Wikipedia – The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
• Wikipedia – Robert A. Heinlein
• Gigaom – Why Did Google Abandon Firefox?
• Ben Goodger
• Google Blog – A fresh take on the browser
• Google Blog – Update to Google Chrome’s terms of service
• Google Blog – Making terms of service clearer
• Google Comic – Announcing Chrome
• Google Chrome – Download
• Wikipedia – Cloud computing
• Wikipedia – Software as a Service
• New Zealand Herald – Beware Google Chrome, warns security specialist
• CNET – Google’s Omnibox could be Pandora’s box
• Internet News – Google: Chrome Browser Will Make Money
• Computerworld – Chrome not so shiny from a privacy perspective
• New Zealand Herald – Is Google’s new Chrome browser any good?
• Stuff – Google Chrome needs more polish
• Internet News – Google Hopes Chrome Will Help, Not Hurt Firefox
• Zemlin’s Blog – If Google’s new browser isn’t even available on Linux, why is this great news for Linux?

In August, Statistics New Zealand released the results of the latest Internet Service Providers Survey, taken in March 2008. For this survey, questionnaires were sent to sixty ISPs in New Zealand. Various questions were asked. I was interested in those related to broadband versus dial-up.

Users of the Internet increased, over the six month period from September 2007, to 1.5 million. The percentage of broadband users is now just over 59%, leaving around 41%, or 613,000, languishing on dial-up. Admittedly this has decreased around 9% in the same period, but it is still a considerable number.

There are many reasons why someone would choose to stay on dial-up. They may only want email, therefore dial-up is the best solution. I believe the most likely reason, is their budget may not allow them to afford the higher price of a broadband connection. This, I believe, is also the reason for the lower levels of Internet use by Senior Citizens, Maori, and Pacific Islanders.

This theory is confirmed by a report from the World Internet Project, on New Zealand Internet use, which coincided with the Statistics New Zealand survey. This report confirms that the Internet is the domain of young, urban pakeha with money. The over sixties, Maori, and Pacific Islanders, are substantially less likely to use the Internet.

What we are seeing in New Zealand is a three-way split between those that can afford broadband Internet connection, those that can only afford dial-up, and those that can not afford any connection at all. There is probably nothing that can be done to make the Internet more available to those with a small disposable income, but perhaps there is something that can be done about those that can only afford dial-up.

Recently I was subjected to an experience that I had not had for some years. I had to use a dial-up connection. It was not a pleasant experience, and web pages took a much longer time to load than I remember. There could be two reasons for this, one is that my memory is playing tricks, and the other is that the web designers of today’s websites are designing their pages only for broadband users. I plump for the later reason.

One has only to take a look at TVNZ’s horror show of a website, or try to use stuff.co.nz on a dial-up line to see what I mean. You might as well take a walk to the dairy and buy the Dominion Post – you will be home before the Stuff website displays on your computer monitor.

The BBC has two different ways of presenting its news website. It has the normal high graphic version, and a lower quality version. The lower quality version is not only better for people with slower Internet connections, but it is also better for the sight impaired to use, with a “speaking web browser”.

The fact that the BBC can supply a website for dial-up connections proves it can be done. There are demographics showing senior citizens will soon be a sizable percentage of New Zealand’s population as the baby boomers reach their mature years. Among them are some heavy Internet users. What is going to happen when they can only afford dial-up?

We need a two pronged attack. The first must be cheaper, affordable broadband for all, the second must be thoughtfully designed websites that work well in both the broadband and dial-up environments.

• Computerworld – Study finds low level of Maori internet use
• Statistics New Zealand – Internet Service Providers Survey: March 2008
• World Internet Project New Zealand – The Internet in New Zealand 2007 Final Report
• TVNZ
• Stuff
• BBC – High graphics
• BBC – text only

Ever wonder what people, siting next to you on the bus, are listening to on their headphones? The chances are that some of them will be listening to a podcast.

Podcasts are audio files, that can be downloaded from a website, and then transferred to an mp3 player. They can then be listened to on the commute to work, or while at the gym, gardening, or during any other activity. In 2005, when eStuff last talked about podcasts, they were in their infancy. Now it is possible to get podcasts from most broadcasters’ websites. Podcasts are also available from other sources. Apple’s iTunes is the most famous. Other sites like podcast.com, Podcast Alley, and Podcast Directory are also providing a service, while in New Zealand Big Pod is the place to go.

The last eStuff article on podcasts urged Radio New Zealand to take the example set by the BBC, and start providing podcasts. RNZ now has a podcast web page, providing downloads of most of their programmes. For instance each Morning Report, Nine To Noon, or Saturday Morning segment is available individually. This makes it very handy for people who missed, for example, an interview, to download just that bit of the show.

One podcast of special interest is the Podcast Classics, where local orchestras have been recorded by RNZ, and the subsequent performance is made available, free of charge, for download. As I write, Beethoven’s 6th and Anthony Ritchie’s Second Symphony are available. This is a wonderful way to build up a legal classical music library on your computer, and mp3 player.

There is however, as I found out, one problem with the general podcasts. Recently I missed the “Music With Manu Taylor” segment, of Nine To Noon. Knowing that RNZ had podcasts available, I went to the website, and downloaded the podcast. I then begrudgingly started the dishes while listening on my mp3 player. The concept of “Music With Manu Taylor” is to play three tracks from newly released CDs. Manu then comments on the CD. This helps listeners know what is available, and assists in CD purchasing decisions. I judge that on the weekend following Manu’s segment, a fair number of CDs are purchased, based on what people have heard him play.

So imagine my surprise when the podcast had no music in it at all. I made a quick trip back to the website, and found the following statements: “Due to copyright restrictions, all music has been removed”, and “Not all audio is available via podcast for copyright reasons”. I understand that RNZ is unable to include music on podcasts, because the record companies are worried that people downloading the podcasts would then pirate the music, and they would not sell any CDs. This seems a little counter-productive. The sole purpose of “Music With Manu Taylor” is to sell CDs. There are now three CDs that I haven’t heard, and because the music was removed from the podcast will never know if I want to buy..

We are in the 21st century, it is a digital age, people now listen to “broadcasts” in a different way than their grandparents. It is extremely short-sighted of record companies to impose this restriction on podcasters. No wonder CD sales are dropping faster than Labour’s popularity, in the opinion polls.

Podcast Links

• eStuff – Podcasts
• eStuff – Radio New Zealand Podcastsing
• Wikipedia – Podcasting

Some Broadcasters that have Podcasts

• BBC
• ABC
• NPR
• CBC
• CNN
• Guardian
• Radio New Zealand
• Radio Live
• Kiwi FM

Podcast Directories

• iTunes
• Podcast.com
• Podcast Alley
• Podcast Directory

New Zealand Podcasts

• Big Pod
• Podcast Directory New Zealand
• Podcast Alley New Zealand
• Podcast Classics

Podcast Software

• Juice podcast receiving software
• @Podder for “Partially Sighted” listeners needing podcast receiving software

Some Of My Favourite Podcast Sites

• Podiobooks are serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format.
• Scientific American 60 Second Science
• Scientific American 60 Second Psych
• Scientific American
• Discover Magazine Vital Signs
• Penguin Books
• The World Technology
• Escape Pod Science Fiction Short Stories
• BBC4 In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg
• Starshipsofa Science Fiction Magazine
• New Yorker magazine Short Stories
• NPR All Songs Considered

Since the 1990s our world has changed considerably. The spread of the Internet, together with the exponential growth of power in microprocessors, has left us all, as David Lange would say, wanting a cup of tea.

No one could have predicted that whole industries would be founded, and flounder, on the back of the phenomenon. Thousands of people are now employed in jobs that did not exist before the Internet. These are the people providing your connection to the Net, the ISPs, the people who design and maintain the web pages, and the people that write the software, and build the hardware that it all runs on.

The whole of the recording industry has had the guts ripped out of it by the demolition of its business model. Sales of CDs are dropping daily. The record companies have failed to adjust to the concept that music can be downloaded from the Internet. First they ignored it, then they tried to prevent it with Digital Rights Management, now they seem more in tune, and are adopting it.

Banks immediately saw that savings could be made. They had already decimated their branch structure, replacing them with ATMs and phone banking. The Internet allowed them to provide home banking. Now the only reason to visit a branch is to deposit a cheque. There are even banks that have no branches at all, allowing deposits by mail.

Newspapers were badly hit by the rise of auction sites like Trade Me and eBay. The classified advert market disappeared as fast as people signed up with an ISP. They also lost readers who found more up-to-date news is available on the Internet. They fought back, and now provide some of the best sites on the Web, and Fairfax Media, who own this newspaper, now own Trade Me.

Television and cinema will be next to experience pain. Unless they adapt they could have the same problems as record companies. People now want to watch their favourite programme when they want, and not when a TV station dictates. Some stations are now allowing downloads of their programmes. The expectation is that movies will eventually be available directly from the studios.

Radio seems to be doing the right thing. Broadcasters have made their programmes available as podcasts. Although they are hampered by the stupidity of record companies not allowing music in podcasts. They tried to stop stations playing records when broadcasting first started. That didn’t work either. Some stations allow you to listen online via streaming and others, especially the BBC, allow programs to be listened to for 7 days after the conventional broadcast.

Phone companies, the same people that connect you to the Internet, will be under stress as the use of VOIP grows. VOIP allows phone calls to be made over the Internet, which makes them very cheap indeed, if not free. Technology now allows ordinary phones to be used as VOIP phones.

As Microsoft, and Google rush to digitise all the books ever published, and Amazon pushes the Kindle ebook reading device, book publishers will be next to have to adjust.

Even software companies are under threat. The spread of open source software such as Linux and Firefox could only occur because of connections, and communication made available, by the Internet, to the programmers.

The retail industry, strangely, remains relatively untouched, as people prefer the mall rather than the mouse to shop.

Meanwhile some people now retreat from real life by spending time in virtual worlds like Second Life.

We live in a marvellous time. The Internet Revolution will be recalled, by historians, in the same way we recall the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance.

• The spread of The Internet – Wikipedia
• A Little History of the World Wide Web – W3
• Moore’s Law on microprocessor growth – Wikipedia
• The Record Industry’s Decline – Rolling Stone
• History Repeats Itself: How The RIAA Is Like 17th Century French Button-Makers -Techdirt
• EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire
• EMI has DRM free sales boom – The Inquirer
• TVNZ On Demand
• Wal-Mart joins the digital movie download fray
• Radio New Zealand Pdocasts
• BBC Podcasts
• BBC Radio Player
• Records banned From Radio in 1920s – Jam!
• VOIP – Wikipedia
• VoIP over ‘real’ phones grows at Skype pace – New Zealand Herald
• Science Daily – Online Library Gives Readers Access To 1.5 Million Books
• Amozon’s Kindle
• What is Second Life?
• Renaissance – Wikipedia
• Industrial Revolution – Wikipedia

I find it completely and utterly annoying, using multiple computers. Surfing becomes a nightmare. Where are my bookmarks? What was my password? What was that URL I was looking at yesterday? And so on.

I use Firefox to browse the web, so I am able to use an Add-on, or Extension, to share data between machines. There are several to choose from, but I decided on Google Browser Sync. It provides more than just a simple method of syncing bookmarks. It syncs all your Firefox data. That is bookmarks, cookies, passwords, history, tabs, and windows. So, not only are your bookmarks kept in sync, but you can even close Firefox with tabs, and windows open, and reopen the same session on another PC.

Installing a Firefox extension is easy. If you have never done this, don’t worry, because instructions are provided on the web page. If installation is easy, using it is even easier, in fact I have forgotten that I have it installed.

Syncing occurs automatically, and data is stored on Google’s own servers. This frees users from the worry of leaving machines switched on. Once a desktop is synced with Google’s servers, the user can switch off, then use their laptop anywhere in the world. Once Firefox starts, it will ensure Google Browser Sync automatically synchronizes the browser data, with that stored on the Google server.

An advantage to using a Firefox extension is that, because it’s an extension, it runs inside the Firefox code, and is totally, operating-system independent. Wherever Firefox runs, so does the extension. And Firefox runs in several different operating systems.

One thing that you will need, is a Google account. If you use a Google service, you will already have one of these. If not, it is a simple matter to create one on the Google Account page.

The first thing you notice, when Firefox is restarted, is that your Google account name, and Browser Sync logo, are in the top right of the Firefox window. This is how you control Google Browser Sync. A click on this logo will produce a menu, allowing selection of “settings”.

Realizing that users like their data to be secure, Google have provided the ability to encode the data. This requires the use of a PIN. Your PIN should be a combination of numbers and letters, it makes it more difficult to break. Make sure that you remember this PIN, because you will need to enter it on any other PC where you install Google Browser Sync.

Google provide options for choosing which data to sync, and also encrypt. Cookies and passwords are always encrypted. A wise choice. I decided to encrypt everything. Some may think it is safer to not store passwords on a laptop that may go missing.

Take caution using Google Browser Sync on computers shared with others. People using Firefox on other computers, you’ve set-up for syncing, will have access to the information you have requested be synced, and any browser information they create, will be copied across to all computers being synced. Be careful in choosing to have tabs and windows sync. I found that when both PCs were using Firefox at the same time, tabs in one system would automatically open in the other when syncing occurred. A little disconcerting, and for some users, I guess it could be more than embarrassing.

Google Browser Sync is truly a painless way to sync Firefox data, and has joined my list of must-have, Firefox extensions.

All the information you could possibly want, is out there, on the web. Sometimes it’s just not possible to find what you’re looking for. There may be several reasons for this, but have you ever thought that the search engine, you´re using, does not even know how to get at the information you are seeking?

A significant portion of the web is hidden from view. This is called the Deep Web, Hidden Web, or Invisible Web, depending on who you are talking to.

Perhaps a good place to start is to explain how search engines find the web pages they tell you about. They send out a spider, some may call it a crawler, or robot. This is a program that crawls around the web, following links, and sending the results back to base. These results are a copy of the web page, which is then processed to produce the search results we all see when using our favourite search engine.

You can immediately see the problem. If the web page, containing the information you want, has not been crawled, you don’t get to see it as a result in your web search.

Non-reporting of a web page, by a spider, can be caused by several things. The page may not be linked to, by other sites, so the spider can’t find it; Pages on the website could be created dynamically, by using a database; The website may be using a file, called robots.txt, to block the spider from looking at the web page. The robots.txt file allows website owners to direct the processing of a spider, so that all, or some of, the website will not be crawled.

There are ways to find these pages. Search engines have been designed with a sole purpose of trawling the Deep Web. The method used is to index the web by subject category. This is done in two stages. The first is the categorising of sites into vertical topics, such as health, travel, or science, and then into sub-topics, depending on the content found in the database. The second stage is to organise the information into a meaningful display to the user of the search engine.

I tried out some of the Deep Web search engines.

OAIster is a project built by the University of Michigan, with assistance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. OAIster does not require you to select a topic, you just enter keywords, and the results are returned for you to read. I found it easy to use, and the results were interesting, and pertinent to my query.

Closer Look must be a Canadian organisation. I say this because the searches they provide are categorised under health, city search, and Canadian airfares. I used the city search for both Wellington and Auckland, and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of information returned.

Northern Light is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with development being done in St. Petersburg, Russia. The search page at Northern Light provides the ability to search the journals that have been crawled by their spider. A list of the publications is available. There is also the ability to browse topics, which is an interesting way to spend an afternoon when you should be working.

Alacra provides a search for company profiles, credit research, investment research, market research, economic data, etc. I used it to search for that Kiwi icon, The Warehouse, and it did return some information. However it concentrates on the USA market.

The search engine Google has become the first choice of so many people worldwide, that it is now used as a verb, for describing searching the web. This was not always the case. There was a “before Google”, when most surfers used Altavista, a search engine that still exists, but is rarely used.

There have been many attempts to knock Google off its perch. Their closet rival is the immensely popular Yahoo!, but neither it, nor the others, have yet succeeded.

In 1999 Tim Berners-Lee was quoted as saying “I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analysing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialise.”

Developments are under way to make the Semantic Web possible. It is possibly, as large an undertaking as constructing the original Web. The object is to make web content meaningful to computers reading the data. For this to happen, information at websites has to be stored in a more specific format than current, human-readable web pages.

Humans would still be able to read web pages, it will just be easier to navigate around them and find the information you are looking for.

A step towards the Semantic Web is a new search engine called Hakia. Due to go live this year, it is the first meanings-based search engine on the web. The concept of this new kid on the block is that you can simply ask questions, and it returns the answers.

I thought that I would give it a try, and compare the results with Google.

My first question was about DVD formats, “What is better DVD-R or DVD+R”. Both Hakia and Google returned the same result as their first link. In Hakia, the link to the page was given as Hakia’s pick, whereas with Google it was the first in the list. A draw.

Trying a local question, I asked of both, “Where is a good place to eat in Wellington New Zealand?” Hakia provided detailed information about Wellington via a “gallery link”, which directed me to websites about Wellington restaurants. Google sent me to Yahoo’s travel pages on Wellington. I think Hakia won this round.

I thought I would ask a more testing question – “What is the meaning of life?” Surprisingly, both sites came up with some answers. Google directed me to Wikipedia, and a link about the Monty Python film “The Meaning Of Life”. Hakia gave me a “gallery page” with the note – “That is a very interesting question. Here is the hakia Gallery for the Meaning of Life. Good Luck!”. However it’s first entry was a BBC news page about ensuring criminals sentenced to life were not released early. I give this one to Google.

From this short example Hakia would appear to be doing its job. The question is will Hakia replace Google? Strangely it was Google that returned the better results to that question.

A little while ago, Yahoo switched my webmail account over to their new system. I have found it very reliable, despite it being a beta version, meaning that all the bugs have not been found.

I was very surprised by the new system. Most of you know that I am a fan of Google, and will recommended Gmail to anyone, at the drop of a hat. But I think that Yahoo have the edge over Google now.

What Yahoo have done is clever, in its simpleness. They have put access to the main features of Yahoo onto the one web page. Once logged onto Yahoo Mail you can navigate these easily. Secondly the page design is clearer. I find that I don’t have to hunt for what I want, as I do with Gmail, I can just see it on the page, as if by instinct.

The welcome page is divided into sections. On the left-hand side of the screen is a list of folders, more about this later. While on the right is the main panel. It contains the latest news. You can choose between Top Stories, World, Entertainment, or Sport. You can select the news item you want to read, or choose More News, which displays all the headlines from Yahoo News.

At the bottom is a small panel that displays any events that you have registered in Yahoo Calendar. A prominent place to those reminders.

The top has the global navigation menu, along with a search box, enabling Yahoo Web searches. There are selections for changing the options, and getting help. A small indicator allows you to see how much space you have left in your mail account. You don’t get as much space as Gmail, only 1GB as opposed to Gmail’s 2GB+, but that should be enough.

The left-hand pane is the control, or navigation panel. The top of this has two buttons, one to check your mail, although this happens automatically every 10 minutes, the other for composing a message. Under this is a search box, allowing you to search through your mail boxes. Below is list of normal mail folders, then there are 3 links, one to allow managing of your contacts, one to view your Yahoo Calendar, and the last, to view your Yahoo Notepad. To view emails you click on a folder and the main panel divides into two. The top half shows a list of the emails, while the lower half will display the selected email.

The next entry, on the left-hand side, is RSS feeds. This is Yahoo’s method of allowing you to read your favourite news feeds. Much in the same way that the Thunderbird mail client does.

The last section is called “My Folders”. This is where folders, that you create, are placed. These folders allow the orderly storage of emails. It is easy to move emails to them via a simple drag-and-drop, or you can set-up filters. These are created using the options link at the top right, only I couldn’t get into the options menu. I presume that this is one of those beta test problems.

Do give the new Yahoo Mail a try. Current users of Yahooo Mail can switch over using the link, in the options section of the old mail system. I think you will find it easy to use, and you can switch back anytime you like.

The last column explained about several search engines that could be used to find information from around the world. This time we concentrate on New Zealand sites.

Searching for New Zealand-specific information can be difficult, using global engines. A way around this problem is to use a New Zealand-specific search engine. Google provide a NZ only search page. There is a little button, which you can select, that limits the search to New Zealand pages. Closer to home, there is SearchNZ, which provides a search of web pages using “fuzzy” logic, so you don’t have to get the spelling correct. A different approach by nzs.com, uses a searchable web directory. The National Library also provides a comprehensive directory of New Zealand, and Pacific Island web sites, at Te Puna Web Directory.

Looking for phone numbers couldn’t be easier with the white pages, or the yellow pages. If you still can’t find the business you’re looking for, both Wises and UBD have sites to help.

Finding your way around is easy if you use Smaps, from Trade Me. Just simply type in the address, and the web page will prompt you. Select the address you want, and the map will appear.

For those needing to take a trip by public transport around the Greater Wellington area, Metlink provides a wonderful website that allows complete planning of any expedition. Just by typing in your starting point, and destination, you will receive detailed information on the best way to get there. You can also view timetables, and route maps, for both bus and trains.

There is a growing interest in genealogy, and the New Zealand Genealogy Search Engine is there to help find the missing branches from your family tree. Meanwhile, those trying to root out lost friends, couldn’t find a better place to start than Old Friends.

There are several sites that provide detailed information about New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand is a good place to start. Here you can get the real numbers, from the population, to amount of credit card debt. Te Papa provides The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, which has detailed information on subjects pertaining to New Zealand.

In the days before the Internet, most people would have searched the public library for the information they were looking for. Wellington Library has, for sometime, made available the catalogue of its entire collection. You can search for the item you want, reserve it, and have it sent to your closest branch for pick up. There is also a section of the website called Mygateway. This allows searching on almost any topic imaginable, and access to a vast collection of online newspapers, and magazines.

Hopefully, from now on, the web will now become the first, and last place you look for information.

Finding exactly what you want, on the web, can be a daunting task. Of course most people will start with Google. You can learn how to get the best results from Google at their help page, but sometimes it doesn’t return the the information you want.

There are an innumerable number of search engines dedicated to specific subjects that could, for those subjects, be a better, first port of call than Google.

IMDB has always managed to settle arguments, in our house, about who was in what movie or TV show. You can search by title of movie, TV show, or by actor, and each entry is cross referenced. So if you want to know what Fay Wray has appeared in, and who was in “Perry Mason” with her, this should be your first stop.

An excellent specialist, music site is All Music Guide. This site provides biographies, discographies, information about songs, and chart details. Classical works are also covered. Unfortunately lyrics are copyrighted, and can not be legally published on the Internet. That doesn’t mean they’re not available. One of the best ways to search for lyrics is to use Google. Type – lyrics: “the song’s title” “the artist’s name” – into the search box.

For information about specific countries, Wikitravel is a good starting place for the traveller. It gives details about the country, how to get there, and how to get about when there. The CIA World Fact Book, yes that CIA, contains every detail you would want to know, from a map reference, to the unemployment rate of any country you can imagine.

For finding your way about, you can’t go past Google Maps. There are even satellite photographs of the vicinity available, and a neat function overlays the map onto the photograph.

When you are trying to find out about famous people, whether they be celebrities or royalty, Who2 is the place to go. From Angelina Jolie to Prince William, all the details are here.

Struggling with the English language is made easier by using the Cambridge Dictionary. This site provides a way to look up meanings, and a thesaurus for those stuck for the right word. If you prefer the Oxford Dictionary, the Ask Oxford website is what you want.

Users of the Firefox browser have an advantage over the users of other browsers. Available with Firefox, is the Firefox Search Bar. This allows the adding of thousands of search engines to a special area, in the toolbar section of the Firefox window. It is a simple matter to select the search engine you want to use, type in your search string, and press enter.

For site specific searches you can create your own search engine using Rollyo. This will only search the sites, up to 25, you specify. Your Rollyo search engine can even be placed in the Firefox Search Bar.

The information is there on the world wide web, you just have to use the right search engine, and search string, to find it.