The internet is an amazing resource for learning just about anything. It never ceases to amaze me how much information, on just about any topic imaginable, is available on the internet for free. There are plenty of courses and books you can buy in order to get really in-depth information, but if you search long enough you’ll find most of it is available for free.

For example, if you want to learn a new web programming language the best place to start is here. If you want to learn something else the best place to start is probably here. If you still can’t find the information you’re looking for then you should probably google it.

Learning how to find information on the internet, and how to separate the BS from the real deal should be on every student’s curriculum. If you master the art of searching you can quickly find a good tutorial or article about whatever it is you want to learn.

Fortunately, searching is relatively easy. If you’re looking for a tutorial on something, it’s usually as easy as typing in [topic of interest here] tutorial. It’s a good idea to start with a search term that’s as specific as possible. For example, if your faucet is leaking and you want to find out how to fix it, you could search for home plumbing tutorial or DIY plumbing. You’d probably find the information you’re looking for sooner or later, but it would be better to search for how to fix a leaking faucet. In Google, the very first result is this page. While that might not be thorough enough for your needs, there are a few more results on the search results page which are likely to contain everything you need to know in order to fix your leaking faucet.

If you don’t find anything you should broaden your search term a little. If you got only a few results but they weren’t what you were looking for you should probably try a slightly different, but equally specific search term.

Want to know who played Michael Vaughn in the TV-series Alias? Simply search for who played michael vaughn in alias and there it is, right at the top of the results page. You didn’t even have to click on anything! Amazing, isn’t it?

Want to find the correct spelling of a particular word? Or a bunch of synonyms or antonyms for a word? Or some definitions? Then this is the place to go.

Highly classified intelligence probably (hopefully) isn’t available on the internet. If you search for how many secret agents does the CIA have in Norway you won’t find what you’re looking for – however, you will find lots of interesting stuff about the CIA.

WARNING: Trying to find something on the internet can lead to hours and hours, and even more hours, spent reading tons of really interesting stuff which has nothing to do with what you were looking for in the first place. If you’re short on time, focus on staying focused!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Computers & Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.