Your Internet Consultant - The FAQs of Life Online
Without a doubt, the most common question on the Internet is one that takes the form "How do I find" followed by something--anything. It can range from the name of a specific DOS program, to a government edict on pesticide storage, to a schedule of tour dates for Pink Floyd in the Southwestern United States. Although many aspects of the Internet have had years to evolve and mature to the point of being robust and reliable, the big missing link all these years has been resource identification; that is, finding information.
In this chapter I'll take you by the hand and show you the basic information retrieval tools on the Internet, how to use each one, and, more important, when to use each one. Once we've looked at Gopher, Veronica, WAIS, FAQ archives, and such, it'll be time to move into exemplary questions about identifying specific resources on the Internet, with an explanation of which tools to use and why. You'll also see the results of a search.