Internet Searching: The Modern Day Indexing File at the Library

While in grade school I was taught how to effectively use the library index files to find books on anything they had in the library. Over the years I have read likely close to 2000 books. My mom was a big reader and often times had me heading off to the library to retrieve seven or eight books a night - yes a night. She would read a 1000 plus page book in about five hours or so and be starting on a second one before falling to sleep. When it comes to finding a good book to read the library is a great place to go.

However what about researching material for writing an essay or doing an article like this one your reading now? Even though you could still head off to the library and found a lot of the information you're looking for, there are other options for people like myself. It is called the internet.

Over the last five years I have started depending more and more on the internet for my source of information. No matter what I may be looking for I will likely find something somewhere online that will fill my needs.

When I am looking for the who's who in a movie that I've seen on television I head to www.Imdb.com. By typing in the name of a movie or the name of one of the actors or actresses I am quickly re-directed to that movie. There I will find a list with most of the actors who star in that movie. My ex-father-in-law use to ask me to look in his book of about 5000 pages of movies to see who starred in a movie. I spend hours sometimes trying to find a movie he would be looking for but only had the name of one or two of the main stars. Had I used the internet I could have been done in about five minutes. I could have also headed to the library and used their many books but that would have cost more time and gas to get there. Plus I would have to go during business hours when their open. As you are likely aware many of us watch movies well after normal business hours. So heading off to the library isn't an option in this case. The internet is always available and always open.

Over the last couple of months I have been doing articles like this for Associated Content. In many cases I do some research before starting those articles. Had I drove over to the library it would likely take me two or even three days to find all the information I would need to do an article. With the internet I have found that I can have an article researched and typed within less then an hour. This is quite a big savings in time and money when using the internet.

For me having a social life means having the time and the money to head out and catch up with people some place else. Heading to a bar, club or event requires that I have to take a shower, put on nice clothes (depending on where I'm going), making sure I have money and gas in my car. One I get there I'm stuck with having to wait for friends to show up or base my time on their schedule. This is a lot of work and planning to set this all up. Granted it is great to get out of the house from time to time. But with the internet I can actually have a social life (in a manner of speaking) and save money also. For about two or three years I use to head to Yahoo chat. I was a regular in one chat room and knew most all of the other regulars that came in on a daily bases. After awhile this like the bar scene becomes boring so I looked for other social activities online. In time I came across www.pogo.com. There I found that not only could I socialize with people from all over the world but I could also enjoy playing games. Games like euchre, Tri-Peaks, spades, Chess, Backgammon, and many others. I joined a league and even became an administrator within the league. All of this at a fraction of the cost it would have been had I headed out every evening to the bar or someplace.

The internet has also provided me with a way to gamble. For a short time I use to head over to the local casino and play the slots. Needless to say this was a very costly venture. I did ok most of the time coming home with more then I had. But I wanted to be able to gamble more often without costing me so much time and money. Once again the internet came to my rescue. First I found some free slot machine sites like www.freeslots.com, than I found www.pokerstars.net.

When I moved to Michigan I needed to find the best route to take. I had my map in the car like my father did when I was growing up. But I was one of the computer generation types so I wanted to see what I could find on the internet for maps. www.Mapquest.com was the site I found the most help in. I was able to print out the map and it even came with driving directions right to the front door of where I was going.

My girlfriend is on a number of medications due to a few health problems. She is also a very paranoid type of person and has on a number of occasions to look up her medications. Before the internet I use to head off to the library to dig through their medical books. Now I am able to type in the name of the medication into the search area and found it within seconds.

Over years I have come to know a number of people from all over the world. Because of the internet I can find in most cases their address providing that I have their full name. Now I don't go checking everyone address but there are a few I have asked permission for. I use to head to the library to look for information about a given city, state or country. However thanks to the internet I can just type in the name of a city and get all the information about that city I could want. Try it with your city or state or pick one of your friends cities that live someplace you would like to visit.

While I was in school one of my favorite subjects was history. I enjoyed mostly the pre-civil war time and always wanted to know more about people that lived in those times. I have found a wealth of information in the library and truly enjoyed most of what I had read at one time or other. However there is also the problem that not all libraries contain the book or books I am looking for. Or they may be checked out by someone else. Thankfully the internet allows everyone to use the same information no matter how many people want it.

There are so many wonderful, powerful and interesting tools that the internet can give you. If you're new to the internet take the time to give free style searching a try. Free style searching is typing any word or series of words into the search bar and see what results you get. You may be surprised how fun this could be.