Small Business On Line Strategies

The accompanying slideshow from a recent talk given at Morrisons

Small business online strategies from NigelontheNet

How to use Google Search like a Professional

How to use Google search like a professional user http://www.nigeldobson.com/
This video will give you six tools that will help to increase the accuracy of your searches and reduce your time invested in searching. They are:
1. Phrase Search. Learning to include quotes before and after our search phrase forces Google to return the exact phrase were searching for.
2. Searching a website using Google. We can search any website from Google search using the following format. Irag nytimes.com
3. Terms you want ton exclude (-) We can force Google to exclude terms that are usually associated, should that association cloud our search results. Cats and dogs are generally associated, but if we want information about cats, and want nothing about dogs, we can put a minus sign hard up against the dogs search term, and this will cause/force Google to ignore everything associated with dogs.Cool ha?
4. The OR Operator. If we want a range of information about a subject from 2 distinct periods, we can use the OR separator to define what we want, and when we want it from.
5. Search and Phone Numbers. Google is a great way to get further concerning phone numbers. If you need to know more information about a company, search their phone number and see what comes back.
6. The Wildcard * If we can only partially recall some facts or a quote, we can enter into Google Search as much as we can remember. Where we cant recall information, we can type a wildcard and then commence the search. Google will use their reach to fill in the blanks, or in this case the wildcard. We can use multiple wildcards if necessary.
Thanks for watching.

Digital Literacy for the Elderly

Yesterday I got chatting with a group of ostensibly older men about their passion for Engineering. Inevitably the conversation moved to the internet and one very interesting point was brought to my attention.

• Less than half of the Engineers in the group have or use email.

I was amazed. It just hadn't occurred to me that the advanced years of this group would roughly equate to a degree of isolation, at least from the internet perspective.

I guess the thing that really came home for me was the need to train as many of the "Silent Generation" and the "Baby Boomers" as possible and are willing, to connect with each other and loved ones via the internet.

The Engineers went on to indicate that learning the internet was out of the question, too much, too late and so on. But I have to disagree. These guys are so capable. They can rescue an old piece of rusting iron from beyond the black stump, and work away at it until it purrs like a kitten. Anyone that can do that, can learn to send an email. In about 30 minutes I reckon. In my humble opinion.

Bored with Gmail Appearance?

Sometimes I stare at Gmail for long periods it really does get tedious. Maybe I need to get a life. There is some truth in that.
Alternatively, I can change Gmail themes. Its kind of fun and easy to do. When the weather is a bit overcast, I dip into themes and select a brighter theme. Or I just jazz up the appearance just for the hell of it.
Whatever your motivation, if you'd like to know how to change the appearance of your Gmail, follow the steps in this video I hammered together, and I hope it helps you. 

How to use Gmail Labs

Whilst Gmail Labs don't represent mainline tools and certainly aren't necessary for everyday email service, its worth knowing about them. I maybe head over to Labs maybe once a month and scroll through to see if they have been updated. I use several all the time, such as Insert Picture, and the one that gives a larger set of emoticons. This video will show you how to find and engage them.
If you have any questions, you know what to do.

Google's "Search don't Sort"

One of the most difficult concept to get across to my computer students is Google's "search don't sort" philosophy, and what it means for us as Google users.

But there is a good reason why this is so. The majority of my students have completed their working life. They have been continually admonished whilst working to "get organised", make sure everything is in order; create hierarchies, file documents, create organisational notes, and thus make it easy for those who follow to view our work. Its no wonder we think and organise in our private lives, in the manner to which we are accustomed.

So here we are wanting to update our computer skills, and Google tells us to "search, and not sort". They're not really supporting us to organise our Gmail in the "normal" way.

The reason for this is Google's supreme confidence that they can find for us whatever it is were looking for. Gmail for example. We have archived an email earlier, maybe some months earlier. And now we face the question:

1. Where is it? 
2. How do I find (my archived email?).

The answer lies in understanding Google's philosophy of "search don't sort". If we look carefully, we will always find a Search-box inside all of Google's products. Here are some examples.

Search Box for Calendar, Drive, Gmail, Google+ and Maps.

You will notice one consistent feature of these search boxes: they are all placed prominently at the top and centre of each service. With good reason. To encourage us to use the search function whenever we are seeking information, whether it be from the archive or from the internet.

Searching in one product searches across several products.

To find whatever we seek, we only need recall a single word that occurred in the Gmail, document, map or whatever. For example, we can search for "Healesville" whilst inside our Gmail.

Here we can see the result of this search. The top third of the search is detailing where its found instances of the key word, in this case Healesville. Its found the

• label:Healesville, 
• then a Group 
• and another Label both of which have the key word in it.

The centre third indicates Google has found the key word in three emails ranging between 15th and 18th December.

The bottom third details documents I've created or uploaded which include the key word (Healesville), spanning between 11th September and 17th November.

The final line is an offer. Google is offering to search the web for the Healesville key word, if you cant see the information your looking for summarised. 

Those are the basics. Once we get the hang of searching and not sorting, we find ourselves dancing quickly between the various Google products, led along by our searches until we find the information were looking for. So give it a try.

Nigel Dobson http://bit.ly/XtPjGs

How to Defrag your Hard Drive (and speed up your Computer)

Easily the most common statement I hear as a Trainer is "my computer is getting slower, what should I do?". By far and away the most effective step is to defrag your hard drive. But there's more to it than that. It really should be done weekly (defragging that is), as regular as taking out the garbage once a week. So, watch the video and have a go. You will be surprised at the difference and how much faster your computer will be. Please subscribe to my channel if you'd like more tips like this one.