The A to Z Guide to VA Disability Benefits
JimStrickland912
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The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do.
Ted Nelson
Ted Nelson
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Google It!
Using the Google search engine couldn't be easier.
First, decide what you want to search for. Choose a key word or two or three. Type it into the Google search box and see what pops up in front of you.
Give it a try for yourself. On almost every page in this Guide I've placed a box with a Google search engine in it that will take you to a page of relevant data.
You can also go the the URL address bar above and type in http://google.com and press Enter and that will take you to an even broader search engine.
Give it a try by searching for something that interests you.
If you want to advance your skills, click here http://www.googleguide.com/ for some tutorials.
How often do you hear that expression ? Does it leave you feeling a bit lost? Do you wonder what a search engine is?
This page isn't going to make you a computer guru but it may help you with some common computer tasks. If you are to be a competent advocate for your own cases, you must have some basic concepts down.
Let's begin at the beginning. The Internet (or World Wide Web) is a vast collection of computers that are connected together. Some of those computers are known as servers. Servers are where you most often connect to find data you need.
For example, I produce this page on my computer in my office. Once I'm happy with it, I upload it to a server (sort of a storage facility) in another state. Then I "publish" the page and the server opens a sort of door to make it available for you to access the information.
To get to that information you must have 3 things. A connection, usually cable or DSL. Those are both broadband which means they carry a lot of data very quickly.
You need a decent computer that is capable of dealing with the data your connection feeds to it. Computers are outmoded very quickly but are becoming less expensive to replace than to upgrade and repair. You can buy a lot of power today fro about $300.00.
Then your computer needs a web browser to be able to view and work with the data that comes from the connection into your computer. The web browser you choose is your window into the Internet.
Different web browsers act differently as they handle the input in different ways.
The most popular browser is a Microsoft product, Internet Explorer (MSIE or just IE). There are many others including Firefox, Opera and Chrome. They're all free and may all be downloaded and installed with little time or trouble.
It's worth noting that this web site is designed with Google Chrome as the browser. I often use Firefox along with Chrome.
That means that if you use a different browser, these pages may have some distorted elements. Sentences may run together or photos may not be in their correct place.
If that happens, I can't help you. You may have to upgrade the browser you use and download one that will be compatible with this site.
If you're using a Mac, I know very little about the Safari web browser but that I've heard it works well here.
If you're using a Mac, I know very little about the Safari web browser but that I've heard it works well here.
If you use AOL or WebTV you'll miss some of the content on these pages. Each of those services has its own proprietary browser that often won't display some of the more modern programming software built in here.
Now you understand how information is transferred from my computer to yours.
What happens if you arrive here but can't find the exact data that you need to support your case or you just want to learn about another subject?
This is where "Google It" comes into play.
A "Search Engine" is a computer program that understands a command from to that sends it out over the Internet looking for anything you tell it to. There are dozens of search engines available. Google is the most popular of all by a long margin.
The Google company has thousands upon thousands of servers where they have already stored much of the information you may need. Google uses a program that is constantly searching for new things published on the Internet (The Web) and when it discovers them, it makes notes, copies and then stores the data to make it easier for you to find.
This process is often referred to as the Google spider crawling the web.
As that spider (a robotic software program) seeks information it does it at lightning speed. sending it back to Google as it goes. Most of us who publish on the web want the Google spider crawling our site often so we try to make it easily accessible to Google.
When you need the stored data, you simply go to a Google search engine icon and enter a key word or a number of key words and then hit "Search". Depending on the speed of your computer, in a second or so you'll have a page of "links" displayed that you may access.
A link is a shortcut that when clicked on, takes you to a site (a server) where Google believes you may find relevant data about those words you used to search. Links are usually "active" and they are usually underlined, change colors and other behaviors when you point to them with your cursor.
Using the Google search engine couldn't be easier.
First, decide what you want to search for. Choose a key word or two or three. Type it into the Google search box and see what pops up in front of you.
Give it a try for yourself. On almost every page in this Guide I've placed a box with a Google search engine in it that will take you to a page of relevant data.
You can also go the the URL address bar above and type in http://google.com and press Enter and that will take you to an even broader search engine.
Give it a try by searching for something that interests you.
If you want to advance your skills, click here http://www.googleguide.com/ for some tutorials.