Use This Simple Computer Tip to Save Time Using the Internet

Here is a simple thing to learn but a big time-saver you really need to know about using the Internet. Unfortunately, I see many rookies and even experienced computer users making this blunder (and remember, I’m not critical; it’s not your fault if you’re making this computer mistake). Don’t use a search engine like Google or Bing to search for web pages or websites if you already know the address! Search engines are like phone books. When do you use a phone book? You use it to look up a number if you don’t know it, right?

You don’t use a phone book when you already know the number because that would be a waste of time and wouldn’t make sense, right? But that’s exactly the mistake I’ve seen people making again and again over the many years I’ve helped people with their computers. So, for example, in my computer newsletter, I may send out a link to a lesson on my site. Now, normally, you should click on it, but sometimes email programs will “break” the link, so clicking it doesn’t work.

So what some people do is try typing the address of the link into a search engine and end up not finding the page! That’s because the page in the example is for my subscribers only, and so is an “unlisted number” (so to speak) that isn’t listed in Google or any other search engines, just like an unlisted number isn’t found in Google the phone book. Make sense? So how do you “directly dial the number” of a web page you know? Simple. In your web browser window (a web browser is a program you use to look at web pages, such as Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer), at the top of the window, you should normally see a bar with the address of the website you are currently viewing.