Optimising your online searches

Anthony ELS12/10/11

–some tools and tips for beginners (and experts)

The InternetYo

ung

Peop

le

Perv

erts

Normal Good Folks

(the elderly)

The internet is:• sprawling• eclectic• ever-evolving• moulding society• now a part of daily life in one way

or another• waiting to take advantage of you• eternal (post something online and

it will remain there forever)

Internet essentials:

An internet connection and a reasonable browser.

Microsoft Internet Explorer will do

(it comes with Windows).

A good program to protect against viruses.

AVG has an eternally free variant and is updated daily

(there are other good AV programs out there)

Internet essentials:

Internet essentials:

Anti-spyware program to protect against malware and prevent browsing of poisoned websites.Spybot is the standard; 100% free and updated frequently

Internet essentials:

A firewall. Windows comes with a basic one already.A better solution is Zonealarm (free variant available). This protects against unwanted intrusions (hackers, etc.). It can be instructed to prevent certain software from talking to the internet.

THIS TALK IS:• Less about how the Internet is constructed.• Focuses on retrieving information and files, using specific retrieval tools:

Part 1: The search enginePart 2: Peer to peer (P2P) software

Part 1: The Search

Engine

1.1 Boolean (and other) terms:

+ - + - “ ” “ ” ~~

Example Google + search:

mirror schiefspiegler optics tilt

(3650 results)• Searching with several keywords and a space between

them: Google returns websites with most of the words or a generic search.

+mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt

(1850 results)• Adding a + in front of every keyword:

Google returns websites with every keyword, not just generic websites.

• Results are more topical (order of words is unimportant).

+mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt –amateur

Example Google - search:

(866 results)• Google look for websites with every + keyword and

none with the -amateur. Results become more accurate.

• Note when you search using Google, you are exposed to commercial (paying) advertisers that have their results right in the top three.

• Don’t be surprised if Google tracks your web browser search behaviour (even from 2 or 3 weeks ago) and targets you with specific adverts, based on your searching history.

Example refined search using “ ”:

(5 results)

• Using a term enclosed in quotation marks “ ”:Google searches for the term enclosed by treating it as a single keyword appearing in that combination (as opposed to the word design appearing separate from the word theory on a website).

• Note the combined use of plus and quotation marks in the search terms. Order of keywords is unimportant.

+"design theory" +mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt

Using ~:

(680 million results)

• Using a tilde sign or the ~ results in Google searching for the word optics, as well as every website with a synonym and derivative of the word optics.

~optics

1.2 So you don’t like Google “Instant”?

Set you home page to this, and it will never bug you again:

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0&hl=en

1.3 Looking up a word or term?

Define:astronomy

• Use the term define:keywordto look up meanings of words immediately (without having to even click off of the Google website).

1.4 Search specific sites/domains

• Use the term site:keywordto restrict searches to specific sites. Examples include:.com (commercial websites only).co.za (South African websites only).co.uk (UK websites only).edu (educational institutions only)

Site:.co.za

1.5 Google caching feature

• Since the early days, Google has been “caching” websites: making a copy to enable much faster searches.

• By entering the above, you can see the cached version.

• Corporate website prevent visiting certain sites. Try viewing that that site using Google Cache.

cache:assajhb.co.za

1.6 An advanced search

Many file servers exist (many run by Apache software), allowing a user to remotely upload files from their computers to a remote PC.

Google indexes file servers that it finds, even the unintentionally shared ones.

The search can be broken down as follows: Exclude “normal” websites:

-inurl(htm|html|php) Identify features common to many fileserver front-ends: -+intitle:“index of” + “last modified” + “parent directory"

+description +sizeRestrict file extensions to Microsoft Word doc and Adobe pdf:- +(pdf|doc)Look for all sites out there for the word(s) using +“Meade”Now you can visit a suitable server and download a Meade

manual directly.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) +intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(pdf|doc) +"Meade"

1.7 Currency Conversions

Google returns the current exchange rate

Use USD, EUR, GBP, INR, AUD, CAD, ZAR, NZD, JPY, etc.

1 USD in ZAR

• A “normal” download: A fileserver dedicates a stream of information to you in a linear fashion. Fast if both your and their bandwidth is large.

• Torrent download: Everyone shares pieces between one another. Fast if both your bandwidth is adequate and many people have the file. Very efficient – especially with large files.

Part 2: Peer to Peer (P2P) file

sharing

Created by Wikiadd (Wikipedia)

2.1 The P2P Concept

2.2 Recommended PC Software to manage pieces of

the file puzzle (free):

(Reliable mid-range sedan) (Toyota Lexus; every button and option)

(Basic Chevy Spark) (Honda; slick, modern)

• Browse a torrent website (sites like www.legittorrents.com or www.vuse.com) that index torrent files, with detailed descriptions and user comments. Find a file you want.

• Download the .torrent file reference file that your P2P software uses to co-ordinate the pieces (or, click a “magnet link”)

• Load the .torrent in your P2P software.• Pray that there are numerous “seeders” (people

who have many pieces/all of the file). Wait for download!

• Once downloaded, consider sharing the file for a while (seeding).

2.3 P2P in practice

2.4 P2P WARNINGS• P2P software is popular with software pirates

(sites like www.piratebay.org and www.isohunt.com): there is no easy way of distinguishing legitimate files from illegal/copyrighted files. There is also no easy way of tracking down infringers.

• Don’t download illegal software. Just because millions of other people do it is no justification.

• Despite the difficulty, IT specialists can still track down fixed IP addresses/users that are substantially sharing illegal files. A letter via your ISP asks you to cease and desist (especially uploading); possible fine.

• There is a high likelihood that your ISP throttles/shapes P2P traffic. The result is slower download compared to a direct download.

• With P2P, you stand a higher chance of contracting a virus.

More WARNINGS

Links and search term lookupAVG Anti-virus (free): http://free.avg.com/za-en/homepage Spybot anti-malware: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html Zone alarm:

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htmBittorrent http://www.bittorrent.com Vuze http://www.vuze.com/ Microtorrent (μTorrent) http://www.utorrent.com/ Tixati http://www.tixati.com Free Download Manager http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

To turn off the Instant search feature in Google, set this URL to your homepage: http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0&hl=en

List of (legal) .torrent search engines:

• http://legittotrrents.com • http://www.vuze.com • http://www.ClearBits.net/ • http://vodo.net/ (Indi film & movies) • http://www.YouTorrent.com • http://www.LegitTorrents.info• http://trackerx.net • http://www.sharefilles.com • http://www.archive.org • http://legaltorrent.net

Term Google Search example Returns

mirror schiefspiegler optics tilt Generic search of websites

+ +mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt All websites with all keywords

- +mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt –amateur All sites with +keywords and none with – keywords

“ ” +"design theory" +mirror +schiefspiegler +optics +tilt

All sites with all keywords, and keyword string of “”

~ optics Sites with the word optics and also synonyms of it

define: Define:astronomy A definition of the word astronomy (“what is” also works)

site: +astronomy +site:.co.za All South African websites with the word astronomy in it

related: Related:www.assajhb.co.za Websites that are similar to the one specified

filetype: Filetype:.pdf All websites with a .pdf file on it

1 USD in ZAR Returns the current exchange rate

(sqrt 18)^3= 76.3675324

cache: cache:www.assajhb.co.za Google’s cached version of the website

number..number 3..9 Searches between a range of numbers. Here: 2 and 9

Info: info:www.assajhb.co.za Information about a website (sometimes does not work)

inurl: inurl:assa All sites with query words only in the URL of the page

intitle: intitle:assa All sites with ASSA restricted to the TITLE of the page

allintext: allintext:(assa|jhb) Sites with all query words in the TEXT of the page

allintitle: Allintitle:(assa|jhb) Sites with all query words in the TITLE

Search terms (this list is non exhaustive):-

Exceedingly useful Google Search combination: -inurl:(htm|html|php) +intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +”your keywords”

END.