Specialised Search Engines

  When one thinks of search engines the first one that comes to mind
is google.However there are a few that do specific types of search.For
example sample these:
1.Copyscape:this site finds out if the content in a site is also present
in another site.(checks for online plagiarism)
2.Fizy:music search.
3.Tineye:finds the source of an image that us available online.
4.Technorati:blog search.
5.Wolfram-alpha:solves math problems.
6.Metasearch engines:these sites search a term in multiple search
engines and display the aggregated result.
  That's it for now...

Search Engines

 Search engines are the first place for looking up information online.The reason I'm writing about this at the end is because most searches do not give the right answer..atleast in my experience.
  A few useful things I've found about search engines are:
1.Different types of search (image,blog..) are available
2.Suggest:I've found this feature to be useful when only a part of the search term is known.
3.Searching a single site:in google this can be done by typing   "site:(site name) (search term)"
    eg:site:wikipedia.org bluetooth
 In my next post I'll list out a few specialised search engines.

Forums and Q&A Sites

 In question and answer sites like yahoo answers questions posed by users are answered by other users whereas forums are discussion boards;here topics,questions are discussed or resolved by members.
  Different forums cater to different topics.These forums can also be used to keep in touch with the latest developments like in weblogs.
  A few sites I browse are:
    1.Yahoo answers:http://in.answers.yahoo.com/
    2.Broadband forum:http://broadbandforum.in/
    3.Answers.com:http://www.answers.com/

Web Directory

  A web directory is a website where most websites present on the world wide web are classified topic-wise.For example sites like gmail,yahoomail,etc will be listed under email providers and so on.
  This can be used for research in many ways.Two ways in which I've used it are:
  1.Finding sites that feature a particular topic
  2.Find sites that are similar to a particular site.
       This can be done by searching the site name in the web directory.The search leads to the topic which features other similar sites.
   eg: go to the google directory(http://www.google.com/dirhp)
        search for google.com(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cat=gwd/Top&ei=wdGVS9y4Lc60rAeK3-ycDA&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=google.com&spell=1)
        find the topic(http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/)
  Google has a web directory(http://www.google.com/dirhp)
  And wikipedia features a list of web directories here.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_directories)

Weblogs

  A blog is a website that deals with a particular topic and is updated on a regular basis.A new update(or post) can be about new developments or features.This in turn is discussed by readers via their comments.This way its possible to keep in touch with what's happening in a field.
  Plus one can read about others experiences and get new ideas..
    A few noted blogs which I read are:
       1.Digital Inspiration:http://www.labnol.org/
       2.http://howtogeek.com/
       3.Download Squad:http://www.downloadsquad.com/

Online Research:Different Techniques

  Starting this week I'm going to describe a few useful ways to obtain information online.I'll start off with wikipedia.
  Wikipedia is the online repository of information.Here are a few ways I've found it useful:
 1.Description of each topic is given.
 2.Links to related topics and for further reading are given.
    For example links can be tutorials.
 3.In topics like software a list of similar software plus a comparison is given(not always though).
 4.If the term is not available as a separate topic then it could be part of another topic.
    This can be used for further research.

 Tips:use the suggest feature to quickly find search terms(or even related topics).
        search the site using google to find if a term is present in any topic.

Backup and Synchronisation of Data

  First some basics.In a backup the data in one location is saved to another location.In synchronisation the backup operation is done in two directions;changes to data in one location are updated to data in another location and the reverse is also done.
  Some softwares also offer a third option;while doing a synchronisation no data is deleted.
  Standard features of backup software:
 1.Encryption of backed up data.
 2.Compression
 3.The backup destination can be in the same disk,external drive or a remote server.
 4.Preview the differences in files stored at the two locations.
 5.Email notifications on completion of backup/synchronisation tasks.
  In my following posts I'll describe a few backup software.