How To Tell A Search Engine What Not To Search For

When you use a search engine do you often find that it delivers too many results? That's why sometimes it pays to tell them what not to search for. There's an easy trick that you can use anytime you want to exclude certain terms from your search query. All you have to do is type a minus sign right next to the term you want to exclude.

To illustrate how this works we'll pretend we're searching for Web pages where the word Mustang appears, but not the word Ford. We're excluding the term "Ford" from our search, in other words.

If we go to a search engine like Google for example, instead of typing this:

Mustang

which yields 75,600,000 results (as of this writing).

We'll type this:

Mustang -Ford

which yields 1,770,000 results.


By typing the minus sign before the term Ford, we're telling Google to list Web pages where the term Mustang appears, but not the term Ford. Still a lot of pages as you can see, but it narrows it down considerably.

Give it a try next time you want to exclude certain terms to narrow down your search results!

Experience The Majesty Of The Grand Canyon On Your Computer Screen

Have you ever had a chance to visit the Grand Canyon, one of the great natural wonders of the world? Well, even if you haven't there's a site online that will let you experience it virtually, with just a click of your mouse. But be warned, it's so real it will take your breath away!

Ready? Just point your browser to The virtual tour of the Grand Canyon you'll find on the Web site of VRMag.org. The Grand Canyon will come alive in 360 degree panoramic splendor right on your computer screen.

Remember, it's only a virtual tour!

Featured Google How-To Video: "Explore A Place"

Did you know that Google Maps has introduced a new feature that allows you to explore a place on the map in greater detail? When you type in a location in Google Maps you can view user generated images, video and more for that place just by clicking "Explore this area" from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

To see some examples of how this feature works just watch the Google-produced video below!

How To Turn Your Digital Photos Into A Coffee Table Book

Remember the days when you would take your favorite photographs and put them in a scrapbook or photo album? Imagine if you could have taken those photographs and turned them into a coffee table book? Back then it would have been cost prohibitive, but now, thanks to innovations like digital photography and the power of the Web, it's much more affordable.

Today, many Web sites are offering user-friendly bookmaking software that makes it easy to turn your photographs into coffee table books, and in many cases, this software is available for free. A good example of such a site that offers free software is Blurb.com.

At Blurb.com, simply download their free Booksmart software to your computer, then add your digital photographs, and either have the software automatically lay out the book for you or manually drag and drop the images onto the pages yourself.

To learn more about using this software and see how easy it can be to make a coffee table book out of your photographs, make sure you watch the Step-By-Step Guide To Creating Your Book, a helpful how-to video created by Blurb.com. It really covers everything you need to know to get started!

When you're satisfied with the layout and design of your photo book, you can purchase it from their online bookstore-oh, you can also make it available for sale to the general public if you choose!

Celebrate Memorial Day Online Too

This Memorial Day weekend, why not take a break from all those barbecues and spend some quality time online in remembrance? A great place to start is USMemorialDay.org-it'll help you make the most of this national holiday!

Some of the site's highlights include:

• Tips on how to observe Memorial Day
• Memorial Day-themed activities and puzzles
• Historical information about the holiday

And much more! This is the site to go to if you want to enhance your experience and understanding of this important national holiday!

Have a happy and healthy Memorial Day weekend!

Note: In observation of the holiday, The Senior Surfer will post again on Tues, May 27th.

Tips For Healthy Aging From The New York Times

Are you looking for a concise yet comprehensive guide to taking care of your aging body? You might be interested in a special feature called A Guided Tour of Your Body that's been recently added to The Health Section of the New York Times Web site.

In this special section you'll find a series of articles and interactive tools designed to keep you on the cutting edge regarding health and aging. Information on how to keep your brain sharp as you age and the importance of adding strength training to your fitness regimen are just a few of the many highlights of this impressive resource.

This special guide covers everything from head to toe-literally!

How To Use Google To Search For An Exact Phrase

Did you know that there's a quick and easy way to use Google to search for an exact phrase? Say you want to find pages on the Web where the phrase, "health benefits of chocolate" appears.

If you type this in the search entry box:

health benefits of dark chocolate

Google will return 288,000 results (as of this writing)

Instead, if you type this:

"health benefits of dark chocolate"

Google will return only 9,990 results.

Notice the difference? By putting quotes around the phrase you're telling Google that you want to narrow or restrict your search to only those Web pages where that exact phrase can be found.

Incidentally this quick little trick also works on other search engines as well, like Ask.com, Live Search and Yahoo! Search, among others.

Give it a try!

Click To The Top Of Mt. Everest

In the news today you might have read about 75-year old Yuichiro Miura's quest to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Now, if you're not quite as daring as Mr. Miura but would still like to experience the sensation of being on top of the world, you'll be happy to know that you can get to the top of Mt. Everest with just a click of your mouse!

You'll find a 360 degree panoramic view from the summit of Mt Everest on a Web site called Panoramas.dk, created by Hans Nyberg, a virtual reality photographer. Thanks to this terrific site, you can reach the top of the world by clicking instead of climbing!

Enjoy the view!

How To Get The Most Out Of Microsoft's ClearType Technology

Have you heard about Microsoft's ClearType technology? ClearType is a Microsoft innovation in font display that's designed to make text on a computer screen easier to read-especially on LCD displays.

If your operating system is Windows Vista, ClearType is on by default, so you're already taking advantage of it without doing anything. On the other hand, if your computer is running the older XP operating system, you'll have to turn this feature on, and you can do that by going to Microsoft's Online ClearType Tuner and following their instructions.

You can also use the Online ClearType Tuner to fine tune the program's settings-and both XP and Vista users can use it for that function! Again, just click on the link above and follow the steps presented on the site.

To learn more about this font display innovation visit Microsoft's ClearType Information Page.

Watch News Videos Here At The Senior Surfer

This one's for all you news junkies out there who are beginning to see how convenient getting your news online can be. Do you like watching news videos online? Well, starting today, you can watch top U.S. news videos right here at The Senior Surfer!

You'll find this handy new feature over on the left sidebar right underneath the title Top U.S. News Videos.

A Ton Of Resources At Olive Tree Genealogy

What remarkable times these are for researching your family tree on the Web. There are some top-notch genealogy resources online if you know where to find them. Luckily here at The Senior Surfer, you can find links to several of these online destinations under Notable Genealogy Sites.

Today, we're adding another great site to that growing list-a site called Olive Tree Genealogy. Here are a few of the reasons why it should be considered a notable genealogy Web site:

• It offers a handy 10 step guide for beginners in genealogy research


• You'll find more than 1,900 pages of genealogy records


• Plenty of useful genealogy guides and tutorials

Started by former teacher Lorine McGinnis Schulze, and on the Web since 1996, this is one powerhouse of online genealogy research you must see!

A Virtual Visit To The Eiffel Tower

There are few man-made structures that are more awe-inspiring than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Now, thanks to the power of the Web, you can tour this historic landmark right from the comfort of your computer chair.

The virtual tour of the Eiffel Tower is available at Arounder a Web site featuring virtual tours of many European cities and some U.S. cities as well. In addition to the Eiffel Tower, they host several other virtual tours of points of interest in Paris, worth checking out as well!

By the way, if you suffer from vertigo or are afraid of heights these 360 degree panoramic views from points high atop the Eiffel Tower might not be for you-they're that realistic! Otherwise, c'est merveilleux!

Online Home Improvement Workshops For DIYs

If you're the type that gets excited about do-it-yourself projects around the house, you'll love the Home Depot Online Workshop Series. These feature-rich video workshops are free to view online and will show you how to tackle a variety of home improvement projects.

Here are just a few of the video workshops you'll find there:

• Green Your Home Inside and Out
• Create the Ultimate Garage
• Creating a Home Theater I

And several others. A library of do-it-yourself videos available to you on the Web and viewable at your convenience!

How To Change The Number Of Search Results Google Displays On A Single Page

When you do a Google Search, do you ever find yourself wishing that Google would display more search results on a single page instead of the 10 it displays by default? Did you know there's an easy way to change this?

Simply follow these steps:

1. From the Google Homepage, click on Preferences (Read the related post 4 Google Secrets Hidden In Plain View.)
2. On the resulting page scroll down till you see Number of Results.
3. From the drop down menu you can set the number of results to be displayed at either 10, 20, 30, 50 or 100.

If you set the number to 100 for example, then instead of 10 pages of results to sift through, you'll only have one. Less mouse clicking to get through all the results will mean your hand gets a rest too!

Discover The History Of Mother's Day

By now you're probably very much aware that Sunday is Mother's Day. But how much do you know about the history of this holiday that celebrates motherhood?

On the Web, you can learn about the history of Mother's Day at these sites:

• History of the Holidays: Mother's Day - Watch this short video from History.com to find out some surprising things about the holiday.
• Mother's Day on the Net - A look at the history and tradition of Mother' s Day from Holidays.net.
• Mother's Day: History of the Celebration - Mother's Day history and more from About.com.

Here's to a happy and healthy holiday to mothers everywhere!

Featured Google How-To Video: "New features in Google Earth 4.3"

Have you used Google Earth yet? No? Then you don't know what you're missing. Take a look at how some of the features from the latest iteration of this richly featured program work, by watching the Google-produced video below.

If you like what you see and want to take the program for a spin yourself, you can download the program for free!

Tour The Eternal City Right From Your Desktop

They say all roads lead to Rome. Well, they must be right because even the Information Superhighway will lead you there-virtually speaking of course. If you want breathtaking, 360 degree views of the Eternal City right on your computer screen, head over to the Virtual tour of Rome hosted on the Web site of ItalyGuides.it.

You are a couple of clicks away from touring these fabulous sites:

• The Roman Coliseum
• Roman Pantheon
• Trevi Fountain
• Ancient Via Appia

And so much more. The virtual tour you are about to embark on is stunningly realistic. Get ready to say "Ciao Roma!"

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Hindenburg

Today marks the 71st anniversary of a most inauspicious event in aviation history-The crash of the German airship Hindenburg. If you're looking to find out more information about this famous disaster you need look no further than the Web.

Here are a few sites about the Hindenburg Disaster worth checking out:

• The Zeppelin - Learn more about Zeppelins, the class of airships the Hindenburg belonged to from The U.S. Centennial Of Flight Commission.


• Internet Archive: Hindenburg Disaster With Sound - Here you can view actual newsreel footage of the disaster.
  
• Eyewitness: Herb Morrison - Hindenburg Disaster, 1937 - Read excerpts from the famous radio broadcast and listen to portions rarely heard, at this National Archives site.
  
• The Hindenburg Disaster - The Explosion of the Hindenburg Dirigible - This article from About.com is a good place to learn about the different theories proposed to account for the disaster.

Have you visited a site about the Hindenburg that you'd like to see listed here? Just mention it in the Comments section!

Good As Golden

On the Information Superhighway you'll come across countless blogs that invite you into the lives of their authors. Some are actually worth reading. Such is the case with Lucy's Golden Spiral Journal.

Why is it such an enjoyable read? Is it her engaging style? The richly detailed personal stories? Whatever the ineffable "it" is, clearly this blog started by an 86 year old grandmother, has it in spades.

Here's an excerpt from one of her recent posts:

What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you make a conscious decision, work for and eventually achieve that goal? If you, like me are a woman born in the first quarter of the 20th century, I'd wager your answer would be a resounding, "Heck, No!"

The occupations open and acceptable to young women of my class and generation were service-oriented and circumscribed: one could be a teacher (probably not an administrator), a nurse (seldom a doctor), a secretary (hardly ever an executive) or a beautician who most likely didn't own a business any bigger than a shop in the back of her home.

Read her musings on family, love, politics, and just about everything else under the sun that's worth having an opinion on and see if you don't find her observations, delivered with humor and wit, are spot on accurate!

How Sweet It Was

Ah, sweet nostalgia-no really sweet nostalgia-the kind that involves classic candy of days long past. If you had only saved the candy wrappers in a big old box wouldn't it be fun to take them out and reminisce. Well, someone did just that and they're sharing their collection with the World Wide Web on a site called The Candy Wrapper Museum.

These are not images of facsimiles, but of the original wrappers from back in the day. Here are just some of the classic candy wrappers on display there:

• Ruth's Home Run Bar
• 1940 Hershey Bar
• 1931 Zero Bar
• 1950 Planters Bar

And so many more classic goodies. Visit The Candy Wrapper Museum and take a stroll down your sweet tooth's memory lane!

Featured Google How-To Video: "Driving directions with Street View on Google Maps"

If you already use Google Maps for driving directions then you'll love the fact that they're now including a special feature called "Street View" (where available) that, just like the name sounds, lets you take a peek at what some of those streets you'll be driving down actually look like.

To get an idea of how this works, just click on the Google-produced video below and you'll see step by step how you can benefit from this useful tool .