Managing Information

1. Unit 1: Browsing, searching and filtering data on the net. Unit 2: Make the most out of internet Managing Information

2. Learning outcomes At the end of this module you will gain: • Ability to conduct Online research and assessing information on net.  • Understanding the power of Data.

3. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Browsing

4. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net • Browsing consists of looking throughout a set of data with or without a defined goal. When we are speaking of internet, it usually concerns to use the world wide web. • Browsing is connected with search strategies, such as applying advanced options in a search engine. • Before starting to use the Internet it is important to make sure that you have an anti-virus software installed on your computer. In this way you will protect your computer from malicious software.

5. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net • Most web browsers have settings to stop ads from popping up on your windows while you are working this way you can block any potentially dangerous content. • If you can’t read the content from a specific page you can resize the text via Options in the menu bar. • Navigation on a web page is easy: The ‘home’ button takes you back to the first page you opened. The ‘back’ button takes you back to the previous page and the ‘forward’ button takes you to the next page you were on. The ‘refresh’ button is used to reload a page.

6. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net There are billions of websites across the whole World Wide Web, making a huge range of information available to you. However, it can be quite stressful when you’re trying to find that one site that holds the answer for you! This is where a search engine comes in help. If you type ‘keywords’ into a search engine, it will look for pages across the Web that contain those words and thereby it will show the answer to your question.

7. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Searching

8. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net A web search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of web pages, images, and other types of files. Search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. Internet content that is not capable of being searched by a web search engine is generally described as the deep web. Besides Google and Bing, that are the most know search engines, there are other search engines such as: Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL.com, Baidu (most popular search engine in China), Wolframalpha, DuckDuckGo.

9. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Searching on Google is easy, at least in principle. You just have to open www.google.com and look for any word you want. Let’s try, for example, the word "course". It gives us 1,790,000,000 results in 0.57 seconds (when this unit was written). This makes us wonder whether so many results are necessary especially if we do not have several millennia to check them all, and why this strange measurement of 0.57 seconds. If we press F5 to repeat the search, different quantities may appear, both for the number of results and for the time used to display them. In the first results we see definitions, for example from Wikipedia, and some elearning platform, among others. But what if this is not what we were looking for? What if these results do not help us or we think they are not well oriented? What if I do not want definitions of "course" in our searches, but we are for a specific course in a specific place?

10. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net To solve this issue and limit our searches we can use different searching strategies such as: Meaningful searches Use unique, specific terms – When you search for specific information you should use relevant words otherwise you will come across a lot of unnecessary data. Don't use common words and punctuation - Terms like ”a” and ”the” are called ”stop words” and are often overlooked as well as the punctuation. There are exceptions of course. Common words and punctuation should be used when searching for a specific expression inside quotes. Capitalization – Most of the search engines do not discern between uppercase and lowercase, even within quotation marks.

11. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Excluding searches • Search for any word and then include with a minus sign (-) before those words that you wish to exclude. For example, let's imagine that in my search for "course" we do not look for definitions. We could try it now with «course -definition -definitions» in Google. This means that all results with the words "definition" and "definitions" will be omitted. Once this is done, the results returned by the search are slightly different from the previous ones, and probably will suit better to what we want to find. • Now, what happens if we search for a word and, in turn, exclude it from the search? Try searching for a word, such as "course" in Google, and then try searching for "course -course". That is, you search and exclude the same term from the search. What do you think the search engine will return? An empty set? Nothing, maybe? Try it.

12. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Exact searches • Search for any string of words and then do the same search by putting double quotes at the beginning and at the end “XXX XXX”. You will see that two completely different listings appear. Which one fits more to what we are looking for? In normal conditions it will be the second option, simply because when adding the double quotes we are indicating to the search engine to show only webs where our chain appears exactly as we have written it. • The first search will give us a list of pages where at least one of the words of our search string appears, they do not have to be all, or they do not have to be in the same order as we have indicated. With the second option we make sure we consider each and every one of the words that we have indicated and also in the same order.

13. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Search within a web The site command is site:www.url.com xxx. If we put "site" without the 3w's in Google, the search engine will offer you all the results that there are in a web including its subdomains. If we put the same search but with the 3w's, then the search engine will exclude the subdomains. Definition searches When we want Google to define a term for us, we use define: xxx. We can put for example define: course. Search by file type You can use filetype: .XXX, for example filetype: pdf. It can be combined with other commands, such as site, if we want to search for a file type in a certain web.

14. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Operator + By adding a plus (+) just before a search you are telling Google to show you exactly that term excluding synonyms, acronyms and so on. Operator - We have already seen it, it is very useful to filter search results excluding certain terms. Operator | This horizontal bar means this "or" the other. Operator * The asterisk works like a wildcard. When you put it in front of a word and within a sentence you are telling Google to look for the exact phrase that you are asking but that you can exchange the word of the asterisk for another.

15. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Related search Related: www.url.com. The related attribute is used to obtain results from web pages similar to the one we include. Searching the cache cache: www.url.com. The cache search is the backup that Google bots keep of all web pages that have been indexed at some time by search bots. Search Info info: www.url.com. The info attribute is useful to get much more information at a glance. Search for links link: www.url.com With this command we can discover which are the links pointing to a website and giving it more authority.

16. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Search inurl This type of search helps us to search for words or expressions in the URLs of web pages. For example we can do a search inurl: www to know how many websites on the network have www.        Search allintitle It works just like the Inurl search but in this case the search only shows those websites that have that keywords in the title of any of its pages. For example allintitle: "online shop" Search allintext This time the search only shows us those websites that have those keywords in the text body of any of its pages. Allintext: training courses

17. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Data filtering

18. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Data filtering in IT can apply to a wide range of strategies for improving data sets. This means the data sets are refined into simply what a user needs, without including other data that can be repetitive or irrelevant. Different types of data filters can be used to alter reports, query results, or other kinds of information. Typically, data filtering include extracting information that is useless to a reader or information that can be confusing. Generated reports and query results from database tools often show in large sets of data. Filtering data can also make results far more efficient. In some cases, data filters work to fend access to sensitive information. With the "bring your own device“ (BYOD) movement emerging within the business world, data filtering can resolve some security problems connected to the information that employees need to do.

19. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net Tips for data filtering • All big search engines use cookies - cookies are saved as a record and are being used to store and track your activity.  • Lots of scammers use search engines over email spam - to avoid this adjust your internet browser settings so that the browser doesn’t run any program unless you allow it to. • Be careful when you are searching for the sites you want. Some websites contain malicious software which can harm your computer. Moreover some softwares make you to install plug-ins which hide risk of getting your computer infected with virus.

20. Unit 1: Browsing, searchingand filtering data on the net • Be aware that websites that promise free downloads can lead you to a risky website. • Set a time limit — Sometimes, you won’t find the information you are looking for. Start an internal clock, and when a certain amount of time pass you’ll know It's time to try something else like: • Use different search engines • Call support for help. • Ask a question in specialized forums.

21. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet There are la lot of tips and tricks to make the most out of Internet. Here is a list of tips that you might find useful: Use bookmarks • If you find a site with interesting content make sure you save it! In this way you can check the information easily. Use the star next to the address bar to bookmark Web page you want to save and browse later. They can be placed in separate menu or on bar on the top. Ask • Forums and blogs are very helpful and useful. People there will be happy to help you if you have any questions. Browsing history • If you closed a page that you have been browsing, you can use you browsing history to find it. You can access it by pressing CTRL+Hshortcut.

22. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet Zooming • When the font on website is too small you can zoom it. Hold CTRL button and roll the mouse wheel upward to enlarge it and downward to make it smaller. Searching within a website • When you want to find one particular word or phrase on a website hold CTRL button and press F. A search box will pop-up (usually it’s placed near the bottom). When the phrase is found it is highlighted.

23. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet You can also use Internet to: Find a job on the internet • There are literally thousands of job sites on the web, but the best job boards and job search engine sites have search tools that are quick and easy to use and allow you to search based on the type of job you're looking for, your location, and other criteria.  • Some of the best job sites are traditional job boards, like Monster, Dice, and CareerBuilder, infoJobs. A good idea to find a job on the net is register in different temporary employment agencies in you area, some example are: Adecco, Randstad, Manpower, Temp-team etc. • Other websites, like LinkedIn, connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. ​LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet.

24. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet Buy products or services on the net • Use reliable sources - Basically you can find everything on the Internet, but be sure to use reliable sources for your searches and for buying goods. • Many supermarkets give you the option to make the purchase from home and to receive it comfortably at home. • Payments are usually by paypal or by card and it is always very important to verify that we are on a secure platform (HTTPS://) before entering our banking information.

25. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet Buy flights or book hotels on the net • Another very convenient option is to book flights and hotels online from home. There are platforms that include the flight + hotel packages and by performing a simple search you can find many options available. • Platforms like Edreams, Last Minute or Expedia allow you to get interesting offers for any site. • It is also possible to book flights or trains at any of the existing companies. As well as finding hotel deals on portals such as Booking, Kayak or Trivago. In Google Flights it is possible to find a wide range of flights at the best prices.

26. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet Pay bills (electricity, water, gas) • Many operators offer online options to manage all types of payments. In these cases it is usually necessary to have a personal electronic signature installed in the mobile or personal computer Learn online • Register or Enter in any free elearning platform and study any subject from the comfort of your home. Some examples are: Coursera, EdX, Future Learn, The Open University, etc.

27. Unit 2: Make the most out of Internet Translate documents • Google translate is a tool that can help you translate certain documents into any language. Obviously it is not 100% reliable, since we are talking about a program. Follow directions or locate your destination with Google Maps • If you need a map or route to some place Google Maps is a useful tool. • Type an address or name of a place to find out where it is located. • You can set the route from one place to another. • It also shows you few types of transport including car, public transport, bike and on foot.