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Sunday, 2nd September 2001

5433980

Web Search
Source: NY Times
Push a Button, Get An Answer
The following appears in an NYT article about using the web to find and access travel info. "Prospective travelers often perform a perfunctory search or two and are disappointed. "People think with the Internet, you push a button and get an answer," says Marcia Osofsky, a librarian at the New York Public Library telephone reference desk. Kudos to Marcia for the on-target comment. The article goes on to share a few search techniques.
Note: The article mentions that the use of a * as a truncation symbol/wildcard is a good technique to employ when searching the web. Yes, this is often true. However, not every search engine offers the use of these symbols. Search Engine Showdown is the place to quickly find out which engines do and do not offer this feature.

Fee vs. Free
Source: Knowledge@Wharton via News.Com
"Net Ads: The Buck Starts Here"
From the article, David Croson, Wharton professor of operations and information management, predicts that clever consumers will surf around until they find ways to slip past information tollbooths. "They�re going to find another way to get the information that is almost as good and still free," says Croson. "It�s the uninformed who are paying."
The free information will still be out there, note both [Wharton marketing professor David J.] Reibstein and Croson, because even though companies are beginning to charge for some of their information, they will still wrap it around free content aimed at maintaining at least some of the remaining advertising and sponsorship revenue."
Comment: The big question is the quality of the free information. Just because you find a site does not make the info is provides worthwhile and usable. This must be stressed to consumers. Nevertheless, a great deal of high quality material that happens to be free DOES exist online. We will continue to do our best to share our finds with you.

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