330 words

Speed Up Your Web Searches
by Garth Catterall-Heart

My favorite web surfing trick is to have at least two windows
open at the same time when I'm looking for something.

I start by going to a search engine and searching for whatever
subject is on my mind at the moment. (By the way, did you know
that in recent versions of Internet Explorer you can just type
"? what I'm looking for" and you'll get back several pages of
excellent listings from MSN Search.)

Next, instead of just clicking on each listing that I find
interesting, I right click (or hold the mouse down on the
Macintosh) on the link and choose Open Link in a New Window from
the popup menu.

Then, while that page is loading, I click back on the page of
search results (you may have to minimize the front window or
move it out of the way) and open another link in a new window.

Finally, I click back to the first page that I opened in a new
window and see if the information I'm looking for is there. If
so, I can browse further. If not, I just close that window, go
back to the search window, and open another link in a new window.

There is a practical limit to the number of windows you can have
open at the same time. I find that if I'm loading more than three
pages at once, my computer slows down too much. Your experience
may vary. Generally, once a page is downloaded, it can stay open
and not slow things down. When I get to the point of having more
than six or eight windows open though, it starts to get pretty
confusing, so that's another limit that you might consider.

(c) Copyright 2000, Garth Catterall-Heart, All rights reserved.
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