Internet Portals

Internet portals allow you to customize a web page to display the information you want.  Customized content from news, sports, weather, stock quotes, shopping and more make using portals a fun and productive way to use the Internet.

To use a portal, sign up and receive a username and password and then use the sites editing and customizing tools to pick and choose what you want to see and not see.

The most popular portals are:

Once you create the portal, use it as your 'home page' (first page you see when you start your Internet session).  Here's how:

Internet Explorer

1. Navigate to your home portal page (make sure you are logged into your personal page)

2. Click on Tools from the menus

3. Click on Internet Options

4. Click on the Use Current button (pictured below)

5. Click on OK

Netscape Communicator

1. Navigate to your home portal page (make sure you are logged into your personal page)

2. Click on Edit from the menus

3. Click on Preferences

4. Make sure that Navigator is selected on the left (see picture below)

5. Click on the Use Current Page button

6. Click on OK

Searching the Internet

To cut down on the time and increase your chances of finding the information you want, practice these techniques:

• Use "meta" searchers such as Metacrawler or Search.com

• Use specific phrases and put those phrases in quotes (example:   "scuba diving in Florida keys"  vs.  scuba)

• Learn to use "open in a new window" command to sift through results quickly

• If you don't see the results you like within the first two pages, change your search term or phrase OR try another search engine.  Here are my favorite general search sites:  Google, Alta Vista, and Northern Light

• Try a "natural" search engine like Ask Jeeves

• If you are looking for company or product information, try typing   www.companyname.com in your address bar 

• Search the 'ol' fashioned' way using a directory service like Yahoo! ,Snap or About.com

Judy Kloman won a free hour of computer training from Grand Valley PC Partners

Dave Kennedy won a $20 gift certificate to Cyber Exchange