A Bit About Links
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There are of course quite a number of other sites which deal in one
way or another with the matters touched on here. It would have been
possible for me to provide links at least to some of them but I have
decided not to, and thought that I should perhaps explain my reasons for
their absence:
1. The internet is such a volatile place that, with the comings
and goings of sites (mostly comings, I am happy to say), any list of links,
no matter how diligently compiled, would be partial, perhaps misleadingly
so. Also, having managed to get you here, I am not anxious to facilitate
your departure, which of course is just what a tasty list of links would
tend to do.
2. A bare list of links, without any commentary, is only partly
useful, and is not useful at all to someone who does not himself have
sufficient knowledge to evaluate the linked site. The analogy would be
to a bibliography which contains no indication of the preparer's view of
the books listed. Not having the time myself to do a responsible job of
evaluation, I must simply wish you well, and hope that your critical
faculties are adequate to the task --- if you take your inquiry seriously
and are prepared to invest the necessary time I am sure they will be.
3. I do not wish to take on the work or responsibility of keeping
the links updated, or of being thought to endorse, however implicitly,
the material found on a site to which there is a link, or of being
thought to denigrate, however implicitly, the material found on a site to
which there is no link. Another issue is the administrative chore of
seeking permission from the owner(s) of other sites to establish links to
them, which would be an unwelcome burden.
4. I want to encourage you to develop your own search skills,
which in the long run will be of far greater benefit to you than any
"immediate gratification" which I might provide through a list of links.
I will meet you halfway, however, in this matter of links or no links ---
I will provide you with two lists of the search engines which I or others
have found reliable and useful. The first list is of conventional search
engines; the second list is of "metasearch" sites, which submit your query
automatically and simultaneously to a battery of individual search
engines and then report back to you all of the results. If you want
to review these lists, please click here.
5. Just because you how to put your hands on the tool doesn't
automatically mean that you know how to use it effectively. A search
engine is simply a tool, not a solution, and you must know something
about its proper use before any search session is apt to prove useful.
At this point we return to a theme that runs throughout this site, you've
got to read. The question is --- what?
The users of search engines, like the users of any other tool,
can generally benefit from the instruction manual. Search engines often
fall a bit short in that department. Happily, a solution (actually two
solutions) is at hand. The first is a book called "Search Engines for
the World Wide Web", by Alfred & Emily Glossbrenner, published in 1998 by
Peachpit Press (ISBN#0-201-69642-8). At about $17.00 retail, it will pay
you back, several times over in all likelihood, on your very first search
engine session. Very stylishly written, with inspired use of format,
layout and typography, it is a model of how to write a book about using
computers.
Another volume, of much broader scope but which includes some
useful search engine insights, is "The Complete Internet Handbook for
Lawyers" by Jerry Lawson and available through the American Bar Association
(ISBN#1-57073-640-5) for about $50.00. Well written, well indexed and its
450 pages crammed with information, it would be useful not only to lawyers
but to any other professional or personal service provider who has, or is
contemplating having, an internet presence.
You have heard the old saying that "if you want to feed a man for
a day, you give him a fish --- if you want to feed him for life, you teach
him to fish". That thought is at the root of my decision here; I want you
to learn to fish, as by doing so you will become more free of those people
who think it is in their interest to hand you the fish one at a time, and
thus keep you dependent on their ongoing good will. There is always a
price for this good will, but you may never figure out what it is.
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Law Offices of Thomas J. Keating IV
Centreville, Maryland, USA
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