How to surf the web automatically with intelligent software
| Category: Market Research | Date: 2001-09-07 |
All online research will involve you finding resources you need and then bookmarking them in your browser, so you don't have to search for them again! Inevitably many of your resources will be websites, some of which are dedicated to your chosen field.
In a previous article (<http://www.getpub.com/report19.htm>) I discussed how you can find sites of interest for your research. Once you have located them the next step is to monitor them on a regular basis so that you are kept up to date with any changes the webmaster for the site may make. These updates could provide you with more valuable information.
That's fine, I hear you say, but how do I do it?
Well you could do it the hard way and visit each site on a daily or weekly basis just in case something has changed. Obviously this method is very time consuming and I am sure you have better things to do with your valuable writing time!
An easier way would be to receive an email from a site when it has changed. Some webmasters provide this capability from their website by providing a box where you can put your email address. You will then be emailed by the webmaster when a change has been made. Some webmasters are more reliable than others at informing their visitors of changes, and not all webmasters provide this functionality at their sites.
There are other ways. Use intelligent software bot's.
What? You do not know what a bot is? Let me tell you.
The word "bot" is short for "robot" which implies that they are able to do something for you at your command. This really is the essence of what they do.
Bot's, or intelligent agents, as they are also known, can help you with all sorts of mundane online tasks. There are bot's that will scour online news sites looking for news about your specialist topic and when they find some they send it to your email address! Other bot's are able to help you surf the Net more intelligently and will even suggest sites that may be of interest to you!
The bot's we are interested in are those that can monitor websites and email us when either a website changes or a new website covering our subject area appears on the Net!
Wow! That can save us an immense amount of time.
Well the good news is that it is very easy to find these bot's and to use them. You do not have to be a technological wizz kid to get these beauties going!
First of all you need to find them and learn all about their capabilities before deciding on which bot to use. To do this you must visit <http://www.botspot.com> which is the definitive place for locating any type of bot on the Net.
This site has a lot of information about bot's including what they can do for you and, more importantly, where you can find them.
The bot's we are interested in here, and the ones I use most extensively, are the web surfing bots. I use two, "The Informant" and the "NET-HAPPENINGS" bot.
Using the Informant
===================
The Informant is an agent that will use the search engines to find websites that cover your chosen topic. It will then email you with details of the number of new websites it has found together with other websites that have been updated since you last visited them.
This information is invaluable because it avoids you having to search the Net manually.
To use the Informant go to http://informant.dartmouth.edu and sign-up, it is FREE! You will then be asked to specify the keywords that describe the topic you are interested in. You can also specify particular website addresses (URL's) that you want monitored.
It is a good idea to get the Informant to monitor some of the What's New websites like the one at
<http://www.whatsnu.com> .
Using NET-HAPPENINGS
====================
NET-HAPPENINGS is an email announcement list of new websites. When new sites come online this agent emails you.
To sign up go to
<http://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/NET-HAPPENINGS/>
and leave your email address. You cannot target specific topics with this list, so you may have to filter out a lot of irrelevant sites, but it is still worth signing up for.
While your there it is also worth signing up for the Ezine notification list as well. This list will email you when new Ezines are registered with them.
To sign up go to
<http://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/NEWSLTR/>
Summary
=======
It is important to be informed of the latest online developments in your subject area. What I have covered in this article are ways in which you can use software bot's to make this job easier.
I hope this helps you. Thanks for reading.
About the Author
Greg Spence is the Author of, "How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need....Ten Times Faster" http://www.search-help.net Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for FREE!
:To contact see details below.
gspence@getpub.com
http://www.getpub.com
In a previous article (<http://www.getpub.com/report19.htm>) I discussed how you can find sites of interest for your research. Once you have located them the next step is to monitor them on a regular basis so that you are kept up to date with any changes the webmaster for the site may make. These updates could provide you with more valuable information.
That's fine, I hear you say, but how do I do it?
Well you could do it the hard way and visit each site on a daily or weekly basis just in case something has changed. Obviously this method is very time consuming and I am sure you have better things to do with your valuable writing time!
An easier way would be to receive an email from a site when it has changed. Some webmasters provide this capability from their website by providing a box where you can put your email address. You will then be emailed by the webmaster when a change has been made. Some webmasters are more reliable than others at informing their visitors of changes, and not all webmasters provide this functionality at their sites.
There are other ways. Use intelligent software bot's.
What? You do not know what a bot is? Let me tell you.
The word "bot" is short for "robot" which implies that they are able to do something for you at your command. This really is the essence of what they do.
Bot's, or intelligent agents, as they are also known, can help you with all sorts of mundane online tasks. There are bot's that will scour online news sites looking for news about your specialist topic and when they find some they send it to your email address! Other bot's are able to help you surf the Net more intelligently and will even suggest sites that may be of interest to you!
The bot's we are interested in are those that can monitor websites and email us when either a website changes or a new website covering our subject area appears on the Net!
Wow! That can save us an immense amount of time.
Well the good news is that it is very easy to find these bot's and to use them. You do not have to be a technological wizz kid to get these beauties going!
First of all you need to find them and learn all about their capabilities before deciding on which bot to use. To do this you must visit <http://www.botspot.com> which is the definitive place for locating any type of bot on the Net.
This site has a lot of information about bot's including what they can do for you and, more importantly, where you can find them.
The bot's we are interested in here, and the ones I use most extensively, are the web surfing bots. I use two, "The Informant" and the "NET-HAPPENINGS" bot.
Using the Informant
===================
The Informant is an agent that will use the search engines to find websites that cover your chosen topic. It will then email you with details of the number of new websites it has found together with other websites that have been updated since you last visited them.
This information is invaluable because it avoids you having to search the Net manually.
To use the Informant go to http://informant.dartmouth.edu and sign-up, it is FREE! You will then be asked to specify the keywords that describe the topic you are interested in. You can also specify particular website addresses (URL's) that you want monitored.
It is a good idea to get the Informant to monitor some of the What's New websites like the one at
<http://www.whatsnu.com> .
Using NET-HAPPENINGS
====================
NET-HAPPENINGS is an email announcement list of new websites. When new sites come online this agent emails you.
To sign up go to
<http://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/NET-HAPPENINGS/>
and leave your email address. You cannot target specific topics with this list, so you may have to filter out a lot of irrelevant sites, but it is still worth signing up for.
While your there it is also worth signing up for the Ezine notification list as well. This list will email you when new Ezines are registered with them.
To sign up go to
<http://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/NEWSLTR/>
Summary
=======
It is important to be informed of the latest online developments in your subject area. What I have covered in this article are ways in which you can use software bot's to make this job easier.
I hope this helps you. Thanks for reading.
About the Author
Greg Spence is the Author of, "How to Search the Internet and Find the Information You Need....Ten Times Faster" http://www.search-help.net Want to publish your books and articles online? We can help you for FREE!
:To contact see details below.
gspence@getpub.com
http://www.getpub.com
Copyright © 2005-2006 Powered by Custom PHP Programming