Navigating the Web

Let's face it: getting hooked into the Web is, relatively speaking, a snap. Learning how to navigate it to find what you want-- and equally important-- being able to go back and find it again, can be a challenge.

Directories and Bookmarks

Basically, a Net new comer, or "newbie", may want to start with familiarizing herself or himself with the various directories and search engines, much like we all learned to look up topics in the index of a library. Once you find a site which has a special interest for you, bookmark it, in your Web browser, so you can go back to it.

Folders

You may want to set up a folder for different subjects-- Business News, Eldercare, Women's Organization's email addresses, for example-- so you can store site locations in an easy to use at a glance hierarchy, so , as you accumulate more of them, you don't have to scroll through each one to get at what you want. But, even if you should misplace a reference, if you're thoroughly familiar and practiced with the use of search engines, you should be able to find it again, although it may take some time and searching.

Bookmark Software

Although Netscape and some other browsers have a tool to bookmark sites, it soon becomes over loaded, slow, cumbersome and unwieldy. We really like some new software being introduced which uses the concept of a combination book mark/data base, but with pleasing, helpful graphics, an excellent search tool, so you can look by catagory, title, key word. We've started using one called Dragnet, which was reviewed in MacWorld. Surely others will be introduced, as they are so badly needed, but we can definitely recommend Dragnet ( and we don't own any stock in it.)

Special Interest Sites: Your Web Guide/Librarian

Another alternative is selecting a special interest site, like Advancing Women, and let that site act as your Web guide/librarian. If a particular site, let's say one on Sports, has an area that zeros in on
your particular interest--say, fly fishing or women's golf tournaments--you may want to use that as your starting point in your explorations of the Web since someone has already devoted a lot of time, not only to developing content you're interested in, but to searching, reviewing and winnowing other linked sites to an edited, focused and managable list.

If you're like most of us, you may find two or three of these focused site--possibly one for business, one for entertainment or sports, and one for some particular hobby-- that you want to use to do most of the heavy lifting, or sifting, for you on the Web, freeing up your time for the occassional time consuming exploration of a particular topic. Of course, we hope Advancing Women will be one of your choices: we've tried to provide you with a format you may wish to visit every day for concise business and news updates and women's career issues. If you have any suggestions for content or particular subjects, please email us: publisher@advancingwomen.com

Internet Guides

All in One Search Page is an incredibly useful, award winning site which combines a number of powerful search engines in one place, if you really want to be comprehensive in your search.
Infoseek Guide a powerful and useful guide.
Magellen McKinley's Internet Directory
Places to Visit, includes an index of Webspace, an Atlas to the Web and all the Search Engines on the Web including Alta Vista, Web Crawler and Yahoo.
Point Communications offers one of the best ways on the Web to find the top 5% of all sites on the Web, in any selected catagory.
Pvep Directories, make things really simple, and comprehensive at the same time: all the major link directories in one place, every site from Access Business Online, Awesome Lists and BizWeb to EURO-LINKS and GoldSite Europe to Netscape, Yahoo, and The Scott Yanoff Listing.
Search.com is the newest search engine on the Web organizing 250 of the largest search engines in one place; offered by C/Net, a webcentric computer organization which does everything with a great deal of polish and pazazz.
Alta Vista is perhaps one of the most comprehensive search engines available and is accessed over 18 million times a day!
Yahoo is one of the most popular and interesting search engines on the Web; you can use it to do quick and easy searches from this page.

For a more detailed Review of Top Search Engines
Netscape: Internet Search

For a Weekly Update of Current Sites and Net Happenings
Netguide offers an excellent weekly guide to what's happening on the Net and commercial online services, including many special features: current events, new sites, online news, calendar of events and special Net happenings.

Shareware.Com a new service from C/Net, a top computer media company allows you to easily locate thousands of software files on the Net available for browsing and downloading.

ZD Net Software Library , by the publishers of PC Magazine, PC/Computing,Mac User, Computer Shopper, Family PC offers top rated shareware, "the cream of the crop" which their editors have reviewed, rated and virus checked.