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hink that you can't predict the future? With help, maybe you can. Prediction markets are Web sites that forecast every conceivable type of event in politics, sports, science, etc. with surprising accuracy -- from which team will win the Super Bowl to the likelihood of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane.

Internet Guru's Secrets of Better Web Searching

hatever your question, the answer probably is available online. The challenge is finding it. Typing a key word into a major search engine, such as Google.com, often does the trick. Unfortunately, a simple key word search might not turn up the Web page you need... or it might turn up so many pages that the one you need is hopelessly buried. Here are smart strategies for better Internet searching...

 

PHRASE SEARCH

Group several words together in quotes to find Web pages where these words appear as a phrase. This should greatly focus your results. Rather than search the words Green and Mountains to find out about the Vermont mountain range, search the phrase "Green Mountains" in quotes.

If you can't recall one of the words in a phrase, some search engines, including Google and Yahoo!, will allow you to substitute an asterisk.

Example: You can't recall the full name of a golf club where you once played, but you are sure that it starts with the word "Winter." Type "Winter * Golf Club" into Google to find Web sites that use this phrase with various terms in place of the asterisk, including Winter Pines Golf Club and Winter Creek Golf Club.

MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES

Google.com is the most popular search engine, but it is not the only option. If the first 20 sites returned by Google are not useful to you, repeat your search on Yahoo.com, Microsoft (http://search.live.com) or Ask.com. Each of these search engines has its own ranking algorithm, so different Web pages could appear near the top of the listings. This is more time effective than pouring through pages of inappropriate listings on a single site.

ADVANCED SEARCH

Most major search engines offer a wide range of "advanced search" features, but few users ever bother to explore them. Click the link reading "advanced search" or "advanced" on a search engine’s home page to access these options. You can...

Restrict your search to Web pages where your key words appear in the title of the page. These are likely to be particularly relevant to your subject.

Restrict your search to pages written in English... or located in a particular country.

Exclude certain terms. For instance, if you are interested in animals, not athletes, use advanced search to exclude Web pages containing the word "Detroit" from your search of the key word "tigers."

Limit your search to a particular Web site. For instance, type "long term care" into the search box, but restrict the "domain" to AARP.org to find only what that organization has published on the subject.

Specify a "Numeric Range." Google.com's advanced search lets users restrict their search results to Web pages containing numbers within a given range. This is particularly useful for historical research.

Example: If you search the terms "England" and "Civil War," most of your results will be about England's Civil War. If you are after information on England's role in the American Civil War, use Google advanced search to restrict the results to Web pages containing numbers from 1861 through 1865, the years of the American Civil War.

Search for Web pages that include a specified word near another specified word within the text on a particular page. A less well-known search engine called Exalead.com is the only one to offer this useful feature.

POPULAR SEARCHES

Smart search strategies for finding...

People. Enclose both first and last names in quotes and search it as a phrase, rather than search the names as separate key words.

Example: Search "Laurence Houseman" rather than Laurence and Houseman.

In subsequent searches, try common nicknames instead of this person's formal first name. If you know this person's middle name, search yet again with this inserted between the first and last name... then change the middle name to a middle initial and search one more time. If you do not know the middle name or initial, use Google and insert an asterisk between the first and last name as in "Laurence * Houseman."

If the name is common, add this person's state of residence, job title or spouse's name (but not in the quotation marks) to your search to better focus the list of results.

Example: Searching "Bob Smith" yields an unmanageable one million-plus results on Google... but searching "Bob Smith" together with the word "Arkansas" reduces this by 95%.

Several specialized people-finding search engines might be worth a try as well...

Pipl (www.pipl.com) provides basic facts and contact information, plus links to search companies such as USSearch and Intellius, that will scan public records to locate the person you are after. These sites typically charge $10 to $50 to access an individual's complete records, but they often provide basic information, such as hometown and spouse's name, for free. Return to Google and search the name again in combination with these new details, as described above... or to search the spouse's name.

Zoominfo (www.zoominfo.com) can track people down for free through their professional history, because it identifies job titles and current and former employers.

Pandia People (www.pandia.com/people) provides a useful collection of links to other sites for finding people.

Articles. Google News (http://news.google.com) is a great place to search for articles published in the past month. Google News has an "archive" search feature for older articles, but older articles usually aren't available free.

Web site Kidon Media-Link (www.kidon.com/media-link) features links to the home pages of 19,000 newspapers, magazines and other news sources worldwide... Web site MagPortal.com (www.magportal.com) also lets users search for articles from a wide range of publications that are available for free online.

If your article search comes up empty, contact your local library’s reference desk. Many libraries have databases that access a broader range of articles than are available online. In some regions, library cardholders can search these databases from home on their own computers.

Directions and maps. Video clips and pictures. Google Images (http://images.google.com) is a great search tool for still images of people, places and things. Search engine Blinkx (www.blinkx.com) is the best place to find online video clips. It searches transcripts of Web videos to find those containing your key words.

Health information. Search tools that are likely to steer you toward health information you can trust include Healthline (www.healthline.com) and WebMD (www.webmd.com), which search on their own sites and on other health sites believed to be reliable. Government sites MedlinePlus (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus) and Healthfinder.gov (www.healthfinder.gov) can locate trustworthy medical information on government Web sites or other health-care sites.

Financial information. Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com) is one of the most trustworthy search tools for money matters, because it does an excellent job of weeding out scams and advertising that poses as news. This specialized Web portal searches only carefully selected sites that provide useful articles or information.

Directions and maps. Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) and Yahoo! Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com) are the best places to find maps and driving directions. If you are planning to drive in Europe, try Maporama (http://world.maporama.com) and ViaMichelin (www.viamichelin.com).

ould you like to earn lots of money in the comfort of your own home? Generate thousands in income in your spare time?

 

Ads offering work-at-home opportunities can be found everywhere, from Internet employment Web sites to neighborhood telephone poles. This might seem like the perfect solution for those who want to bring in some extra dollars. But, there’s a catch -- most of these work-at-home "opportunities" are scams, cleverly designed to leave you with less money than when you began. Among the most common work-at-home scams...

Stuffing envelopes. Lure: Earn big bucks -- usually more than $1 per envelope -- for folding papers and sticking them into envelopes.

Trap: You will be asked to pay for your supplies or training. You’ll typically receive only worthless instructions suggesting that you con others into applying for envelope-stuffing jobs.

Reality: Bulk mailers use machines to stuff envelopes.

Medical billing or insurance-claims processing. Lure: You can make big money processing medical paperwork.

Trap: You will be asked to pay hundreds of dollars for the software and training required.

Reality: The majority of medical offices process their own bills or outsource to large companies. Very few hire individuals.

Assembling crafts or sewing together clothing. Lure: Are you good with your hands? Then these companies claim to have a career for you. They will send you unassembled parts and instructions, and you assemble them and send them back.

Trap: The company will ask you to pay a deposit up front because it needs assurance that you will do the work and return the assembled goods. When you send in your completed products, most or all will be rejected as not meeting specifications, and the company will keep your deposit.

E-mail processing. Lure: Earn big bucks by receiving e-mail sent to the customer service Web sites of major companies, then forwarding these messages to the proper departments. For a fee, you can receive a list of companies anxious to hire you.

Trap: This list will be worthless, perhaps just companies pulled at random from the Yellow Pages.

Reality: Businesses usually do not hire individuals to work at home processing e-mail.

Payment processing for international companies. Lure: A company with clients around the globe needs a US representative to handle incoming checks. You will receive checks from overseas, deposit them in your account, take a small cut as your fee, then send your own check for the remainder to your foreign employer.

Trap: The checks you receive will bounce. By the time your bank informs you that there is a problem, the check you wrote will have cleared, and your "employer" will have disappeared.

Mystery shopping. Lure: Earn thousands of dollars by reporting on the quality of the service you receive in stores.

Trap: Anyone who says that you can earn high pay mystery shopping is a scammer. They might be trying to con you into paying for mystery shopping information that you could find on-line for free.

Reality: Legitimate mystery shopping assignments typically pay up to $10 an hour (in some cases, as high as $20 per hour), or perhaps you’ll receive a free restaurant meal or a token amount of some merchandise. For information on legitimate mystery shopping opportunities, see the Idea Lady Web site (www.idealady.com/sb.html).

Variation: You are told that you are evaluating a financial company, such as a bank or money-forwarding service. You are then sent a large check and told to deposit this money in your own account, then wire some portion of the funds to the address provided. The check bounces, leaving you responsible for the money wired.

GENERIC SCAMS

Some work-at-home scams can be applied to virtually any work-at-home occupation. Be suspicious if you are told...

"We overpaid you with your first check. Please send the extra money back." Your new employer "accidentally" sent you more than you were owed and asks you to send back a check for the excess. Sometime after you send this check, your bank tells you that the original paycheck bounced. Your "job" was a ruse to get you to send the "overpayment" check.

"You got the job! We just need your Social Security number so we can pay you." It is perfectly reasonable for an employer to ask for a prospective employee’s Social Security number. Scammers take advantage of this by posting legitimate-sounding job offers on career Web sites, then stealing applicants’ identities. Do not provide your Social Security number until you have thoroughly researched the employer and are confident that the company and job opportunity are real.

SCAM AVOIDANCE

Job Web sites Elance (www.elance.com), Guru (www.guru.com) and RentACoder (www.rentacoder.com) offer legitimate work-at-home opportunities, but usually only for workers with specific skills, such as computer programming, Web design, writing, sales or engineering. (Use caution even on these Web sites -- there might be scams among the listings.) To avoid becoming a victim of work-at-home scams...

Ignore work-at-home job opportunities that arrive unsolicited via e-mail. Legitimate jobs are not advertised by spam.

Avoid offers that promise big profits without asking for specific skills or experience.

If someone trying to sell you on a business opportunity swears that there are dozens of potential clients in your region anxious to work with you, insist on speaking with at least two or three of them. If no names are forthcoming and/or these "prospects" don’t confirm their interest, move on.

Be skeptical whenever money heads in the wrong direction. Legitimate employers pay employees -- they do not charge potential employees for training materials or interview fees. It is reasonable for a company to charge a fee if it is going to help set you up in your own independent business, but be cautious of these offers, too. Likewise, avoid any job that requires you to deposit checks or send checks from your own account.

Do a Web search to research any company. A legitimate company should have a professional-looking Web site (though this is no guarantee of legitimacy). You should be able to locate the company’s phone number and address, not just a post office box. The company Web site should not be the only place that the company’s name turns up on the Web. Skim the mentions of the company that your search uncovers. Do any of them say the company is a scam? Also, check with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org).

Check the employer’s e-mail address. Legitimate corporate e-mail addresses usually end with the company name, not the name of a free Web-based e-mail service.

Example: The e-mail address rwjohnson@xyxcorp.com is more likely to be legitimate than is rwjohnson18259@yahoo.net.

Consider how you would hire employees for this job, and how much you would pay, if you were the employer. If an offer made to you seems too good to be true, walk away.