Bing: Explore Microsoft’s New Search Engine
For your next online purchase, you may want to try Bing.com, Microsoft’s new “decision” search engine. Perhaps you have tried it already and you haven’t noticed any difference from other browsers, other than the pretty picture backgrounds on Bing’s homepage.
If you’re not sure where to start or what Bing offers, click the “Tour Bing” link in the top left corner of the home page. The features are most convenient when you have a Microsoft account, which may be worth your while. You may also want to change your preferences, which can be found under “Extras” in the top right corner.
From the homepage, you will see a column of options on the left side if you want to focus your search results. If you click on these options, such as “Shopping” or “News, more subcategories will appear that may assist your search.
If you search from the main bar, more options will be available based on your keywords next to your results. Here are a few examples:
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Search: Honda Civic, sidebar options include: Used, Parts, and Videos
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Search: Border Collie, sidebar options include: Breeders, Training, and Adoption
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Search: Yosemite, sidebar options include: Lodging, Weather, and Camping
Each search results page also include related searches, sponsored links, and search history.
Bing is termed “The Decision Engine” because it offers more than just search results, most of which are related to buying decisions. For example, if you search for “mountain bike”, you will see a “Shop for mountian bike” heading above the website results. This feature includes brands, prices, and guides, where you choose more specific results. These links take you to a page that shows an image, price, and description with the option of going to that website.
Bing helps you compare businesses at a glance. Suppose you type the keywords “hotel San Diego”. The first result is a “Listings for hotels near San Diego, CA” feature that itemizes names of hotels—including a link to their website and their phone number—next to a map showing all their locations. A link for directions is available for each hotel, which directs you to a driving directions page similar to MapQuest. If you click on the name of the hotel, you will see a simple rundown of reviews, prices, and contact information, etc.
You can get local information like traffic and weather simply by typing those keywords into the search bar. Check on flights and track your packages by typing the flight or shipping number. Review your stocks’ statuses on a table by searching for the ticker symbols in a row followed by “quote”. Ask basic trivia or math questions in the search bar, like “who wrote the constitution” or “how many liters in a gallon” and Bing will have the answer.
Bing offers some interesting interactive features as well. Each website result has hover option to the right that brings up a summary of that site and other related links. If you hover over images results, you can see the size, name and a link to related images. Videos on Bing will begin playing if you hover on them.
As with any product or idea, Bing is most helpful for certain occasions, preferences, or needs. If you want to find a specific website or lesser known topic, Bing is probably not going to be any better than another search engine. In fact, the “helpfulness” could become an annoyance if you’re an experienced surfer who’s not interested in the latest deals and fads. Most of Bing’s features don’t ever require you to leave their website, which is very helpful for shopping, comparing and researching simple trivia, but sometimes completely irrelevant to your searches. That doesn’t mean you should not use Bing for those reasons, the normal search results are still available in plain sight. You just won’t always need the extras.
DSL: A Basic Introduction
What is DSL? An acronym for “Digital Subscriber Line”, DSL is a type of broadband connection that typically connects through your home phone line. Broadband is any type of Internet connection that is faster than dial-up, or narrowband. DSL does inhibit the use of your phone line, allowing you to connect to the Internet and receive phone calls at the same time. DSL is an always on connection, so you are constantly connected to the Internet.
How does DSL work? DSL is usually provisioned by a local phone company or a company that partners with a local provider. The connection is typically established between your phone company’s central office, your analog phone line, and a DSL modem. This type of connection maximizes the use of telephone lines by eliminating the conversion from digital to analog, which is required for telephones, or digital to analog to digital, which is required for a dial-up connection.
Do I need a phone line to get DSL? Typically, yes. DSL is usually provided through your existing land line phone. This type of DSL will not work on a digital phone service (i.e., VIOP, cable phones, cell phones, etc.). Dry-loop DSL, or naked DSL is available in some areas and does not require an active phone service. You should check with your DSL provider for more information.
How fast is DSL? Your connection speed is typically directly affected by your proximity to the telephone company’s central office, which is why DSL is often not available to rural homes. The closer you are to the source, the higher speed connection you can recieve. DSL speeds usually ranges anywhere from 500-6000 kbps (kilobits per second). For a comparison, dial-up is usually a 20-40 kbps connection. Even the slowest download speed on DSL is sufficient for normal web-surfing, email, and most audio and video streaming, but if you are planning on using more than one computer, play online video games, or download large files frequently, you will want to get one of the higher speed plans available.
How much does DSL cost? Again, this depends on where you live and what is available in your area. Prices can range from $12-100 a month, including the cost of equipment, depending on what speed you want and what company provides your service. Keep in mind that the price you see advertised in brochures or online may not be available for you or is an introductory rate that will increase after the first few months. Also, if multiple plans are available, low prices are for slower, sometimes unsatisfactory connection speeds. Depending on your purpose for buying DSL, you may need to find a plan that offers higher speeds at a higher cost. Also watch for additional fees, cancellation fees, contracts, and extra equipment costs when determining your final price for your service.
How do I install DSL in my home? DSL comes in different forms for different purposes, so the installation process will differ. For most home DSL plans, you can expect to wait 5-10 business days for your phone line to be provisioned for DSL and you will need to buy or lease a DSL modem. You will also need to set up filters, splitters, a few wires and cables, as well as a router if you want to use a wireless laptop. You can refer to your DSL provider for more details and installation instructions.
The first step to connect with DSL is to find out whether it is available in your area. You can search online or check with your local companies for more information. When you do, find out if what companies provide DSL specifically to your house, then check for prices, speeds, contracts, and other plan details to find the plan that’s best for you.
Optimizing Your Search Engine Experience With Google
Google has become a widely popular and prominent authority in the search engine world. Finding the right website for many topics is relatively easy on Google, but sometimes a simple keyword search doesn’t bring the answer right away. Obscure topics, past events, and genre-specific searches sometimes take a little more effort. Google has additional features that you may find helpful for your extensive research.
Google shows the most popular ways to refine your search at the top of the page, such as Images, Maps, and Shopping. If you click on “more”, you’ll see some additional queries that may interest you, such as Finance or Blogs. The “even more>>” link will display all of the search options and special features Google offers. Each item has a short description if you are not familiar with these features.
Suppose you want to research a certain topic with which you are unfamiliar and which has many subtopics and fields you want to explore. At the top of the results listed for your search query, you will see the “Show options…” link. This displays a sidebar to the left with additional search tools.
In the first section you can view videos, forums or reviews of your topic. You can specify when the page was added/updated in the next section for results with recent articles. The third section changes how the view of the search results to show pictures or more text to determine if you want to peruse that website further.
The fourth section shows four more research tools: “Related searches” show common topics related to your search. The “Wonder wheel” shows related topics on spokes with your topic in the center. For example, if you’re searching for “apples”, the wonder wheel shows “apples nutrition” and “apple types”. If you click on a sub category, it becomes the main category and shows more subheadings. Clicking on “apple types” brings up “apple varieties baking” and “sweet apple varieties”. When you find the topic you’re looking for, switch back to standard view to see websites from this topic.
Lastly, Timeline shows the popularity of your topic over time and shows select search results in chronological order. You can also click on parts of the time line to get month to month results from a certain year, etc. The earliest results show excerpts from books written in the first millennium.
With all of these handy features, there’s little question why Google has become a name brand for search engines. Try it out and experience the world of Google search at its finest.
5 Tips for Speeding Up Your Dial-up Connection
So you’re stuck on dial-up for one reason or another, and there are days you’re about to go out of your mind. Many websites are being made with interactive banners and ads, streaming audio and video clips, and colorful flash programs that dial-up can barely load, or not at all. Here are a few things you may not have thought to try before. These tips will help you maximize your online experience.
Focus your surfing. Keep your browsing to one window at a time. Or, toggle between two pages. While your email homepage is loading, you can log into your bank account. Close any tabs and pages that you are no longer using as soon as you get the chance. Create favorites or bookmarks so you load the page you want right away. Some welcome screens and ad pages give you a small link to click of you want to skip it. You don’t always need the whole web page to load. Click the stop button at the top of the browser if you already see the part of the page you want. If you see the link you’re looking for, you don’t need to wait to click on that link.
Eliminate programs running in the background. Your anti-virus program or Window’s updates could be downloading updates when you’re trying to check your email. Your messenger program could be automatically connecting every time you go online to pay a bill. Try to install updates and download programs at a time that you aren’t trying to view web pages. Close the weather programs, messengers, etc., that require an Internet connection if you are not using them. You can often change the options in these programs to not start up automatically or change the schedule of the updates.
Save big downloads for when you’re not surfing. You can connect first thing in the morning and update your anti-virus, etc., while you’re eating breakfast or getting ready for work. When you’re checking your email or reading the news later, you don’t have to worry about sharing your bandwidth with your necessary updates. Let your large downloads run overnight and install them the next day. You can also save large files to a flash drive while you’re at the library or a coffee shop with free wireless service and install them when you get home.
Clear your caches frequently. Your Internet browser saves files, cookies, history, etc., every time you open a web page. This is handy for going back and forth between the pages you visited that day or week, but eventually your browser becomes bogged down with all the extra files. It’s good practice to completely clear out all your stored files every six weeks or months, depending on how much you surf on a daily basis. You should find these options on your tools menu of your browser.
Try a different browser. If you have a Microsoft Windows, your computer came with Internet Explorer and you probably surf with this browser. There are other browsers, most of them free to download, that are compatible with most websites. Your surfing speed could be transformed simply by using a faster browser. Some browsers come with accelerators and features that load web pages faster. Three of the most popular browsers include; Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. Try all three or ask around to figure out which one is the fastest or best for your surfing needs.
There are more ways to boost your connection speed that you may find helpful. Your ISP may offer accelerators or different access numbers you could try. You may also need to upgrade to a better modem (V.92 is the latest) or replace your phone lines. You may also need to clean up your computer by uninstalling unnecessary programs or defragmenting the hard drive. Check with your local computer technician for more information.
How to Find the Best Dial-up ISP
Dial-up internet services are about the same connection speed regardless of which company is providing the service. Although some ISP’s offer accelerators, the connection speed still typically range from 20-50 kbps (kilobits per second) as a result of 1) the quality of the phone line, 2) the distance of the phone line source and the house, and 3) the type/quality of the dial-up modem.
Therefore, choosing a dial-up provider is important not because one is faster than another, but because the customer service, payment methods, terms of service, and other important features vary greatly from one company to another.
You’ve probably heard of several larger companies who provide dial up internet, like AOL, Earthlink, and Netzero. These companies have become a household name commonly associated with dial up, but they are not the only dial up providers. It would be easy to find and sign up for Internet service with these companies, but you could be making a mistake. Many larger dial up ISP’s have sent their customer service to outsourced call centers in order to save money. Some of them require you to sign up for a contract. Some charge fees for technical support or cancellation. You have to consider multiple factors when choosing the best Internet service, and this will take some research.
Fortunately, some of this research has been done for you. There are several websites that list the top rated dial-up providers, including the lesser known ISP’s who are more concerned about doing you a favor than making a lot of money. Here three websites who show the facts for a variety of Internet services:
Of all the prominent ISP comparison websites, these have a wide selection, quality up-to-date information, and easy navigation.
These sites show all the basics at a glance—price, ratings, features, and special offers. They also link to reviews, which can be very handy when weighing your options. Wouldn’t you want to know what company has the happiest customers? What did an actual customer say about the ISP that interests you? Keep in mind that solitary negative (especially heated and derogatory) reviews could be an isolated situation that bears no relevance to the average user.
Another benefit of using an ISP comparison website is that most companies offer a discount to new customers, and these websites often directly link to that site’s promotional web page for easy sign up. You will not only find a satisfactory ISP, but you will also save money!
Choosing the best ISP may be a process of trial and error. These websites will help make the best choice the first time. They also provide some information about dial-up and Internet service in general if this is your first time choosing your own company.
There are many companies who sell dial-up, and just because everyone you know has Earthlink or you grew up on AOL doesn’t mean you have to be one of their customers too. Take advantage of a competitive market and find the service that’s best for you.
Preparing Your Home for Dial-up: 7 Steps for Getting Started
With the ever-present and growing need for online access, Internet services in the home is becoming more necessary than ever before. With the current economic struggles affecting you and your family, dial-up internet is a great way to get that much needed Internet service and save money in the process. Whether you’re preparing to connect for the first time, or moving into a new home, there are a few things that you should be consider before calling the ISP to set up dial-up Internet service. These tips will help you make sure you will have everything you need to connect:
Dictionary of Call Center Terms
I am a Customer Service Representative. That is the pretty title for call center person. A lot of people don’t understand why I like my job, and I assume that if the management, quality of training, and flexibility was anything like most call centers, I would hate my job. But I love it. Sure, there are days I really just want to go home, but who doesn’t deal with that?
For your entertaining pleasure, I have decided to share some call center moments with you. In addition to providing Internet services, my call center is designed for the extreme necessity of guiding technologically-challenged computer users to navigate through the tedious process of setting up a dial up connection or tech support. Here is the Dictionary of Call Center terms, important keywords and phrases I have learned as a CSR:
Big Blue E. (n.) This is what you click on twice really fast to bring up webpages. Also known as, Internet Explorer icon.
Box. (n.) Any given piece of computer hardware. The big box on the floor is the tower, the little box could be a modem, a router, or something that has nothing to do with the computer.
Computer-Saavy. (adj.) A measurement of technological skill. Typically after the word “not” to describe the obvious.
Extension. (n.) Any number given to you by a csr, regardless of how long the number is or what he or she said it was for. Are known to never work, and it is the call center’s fault.
Foxfire. (n.) The other browser. Other common names are, Firefox, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
Internet. (n.) Anything pertaining to the world wide web. Ex: “My Internet broke.” or, “I would like to buy the Internet.”
Mobile phone. (n.) Could mean a cell phone. Or possibly a cordless phone. Either way, dial up is expected to connect while using this device.
Little Pictures with words under it. (n.) Aka, icons. You click on them twice.
Main Screen, or Main Picture. (n.) Also known as desktop. The page that you see when all the other windows are closed.
Microsoft. (n.) A perfectly logical answer to “What version of Windows do you have on your computer?”
Right click. (v.) To left click repeatedly and never get the expected result.
Thingy. (n.) Anything and everything for which you don’t know the word.
TV. (n.) Another name for computer.
Write “click”. (n.) A possible reaction to the command over to the phone to right-click.
Ah… good times.
Internet services, computers, and life 