by Linda M Hahn

Created on: December 30, 2008   Last Updated: March 29, 2012

When I first started computer geeking around, not too terribly long back, I was incredibly inept at the whole process. With the concept of useful technology well beyond me, and as well, my inflexibility over learning to interact with a machine stunting my growth, ineffective would be the best description of my abilities at that time. This was before I even knew what a search engine was, and after all the stress of even turning on the computer, much less pulling up an Internet page, I would just look for the first blank box that would take typing.  Clumsy first steps, yes, but it actually worked quite well and some of the results were amazing. Early on, a friend recommended Google.com as a search engine and that was actually one of my very first searches. I carefully followed the directions and even made the Internet open with Google as the home page. Wow, talk about running before you can even walk. I'm still impressed to this day.

Soon, when I had a need to know anything, including time and temperature, and atmospheric conditions, I learned to go straight to the Internet. It was all in front of me, games and entertainment, recipes and classes. Anything up for argument could be settled with just a little research. I could educate myself on a variety of subjects and soon I didn't need my dictionary for word spellings or a newspaper for the news.  On my monitor was genealogy information, maps and directions, government officials and utility companies, the list goes on and on. I could take a look at anything I could conceive.

It was too much and I was mad with the power. I had found the ultimate library in the sky. There were choices and variety; but too, a mountain of garbage to wade through.  Much of it was, of course, advertising clutter. But it wasn't just the advertising; there was a lot of extraneous, barely related material, then there was at the core a thoroughly compiled listing of many sources, not just one or two, but as many as a search engine could grab up. As it turns out, a search engine is limited only by the user.

I lost a lot of time during my initial searches simply because of the garbage mountain. I could find things all right, just way more than I could read or investigate. So I needed to make it usable. I needed to see the best only. Of course that happens somewhat naturally because of the popularity rating when a search is done. Common sense says that the websites most visited, or most popular, are going to be the ones with

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