Without search engines the web would be a much less useful place.

But are you making the most of what search engines have to offer? They tend to have quite sophisticated tools you can use to narrow down searches and make sure the results they produce really are close to what you need. It's not difficult to use these tools - but you do need to know that they exist and how to get to them.

Pictures

For starters, did you know that many major search engines can be used to look for images just by clicking a link on the screen?

Go to a search engine like Bing, Ask or Google, type in something you'd like to see pictures of, and click the 'images' link on screen. Try the same search in all three engines and it is likely you'll get a huge range of different images.

It goes further, though. You can refine an image search, narrowing the selections down by criteria like colour, type of image (face, photo, clip art etc), image size and so on. In a similar way you can search for videos rather than images.

News

How about if you are a news junkie, or you want to look at one particular news story in depth?

There are special areas of search engines which stick to news stories. Bing can refine news into categories (political, sport, World, and UK), while Google can range stories by date - even including a custom date range.

If you go to Google News you can get rolling headlines from a huge range of sources, and can personalise how much of different categories such as sports, science and health hit the feed, as well as choosing your preferred sources - including the BBC and a range of national newspapers.

Digging deeper

When it comes to general searching, many of us rely on typing words into the main page of a search engine and then looking through the results. While this often works, it doesn't make the most of what the engine has to offer.

Look for the advanced search option on the Ask home page or go to the advanced area in Google and you will see that there's a lot more on offer.

Suppose, for example, you are interested in gardens open to the public that are not owned by the National Trust. You can specifically exclude the National Trust from your search results by using this page.

You don't need to use the advanced search page to get sophisticated with search, though. You can also use special terms in the main search engine box.

Search terms

Try putting a phrase into quotation marks - that will ensure the search engine looks for exact matches of what's inside the quotation marks. This can be helpful when you are searching for something specific using a multi-word phrase. As is the case with a single word search, this collection of words in called a search term.

Use a minus sign to exclude particular terms, for example a search on 'red, green -blue' will return results that mention red and green but not blue.

Not all search engines offer the same advanced tools, so it is worth looking at the advanced search tips to see what tools are on offer and how best to make use of them.

While many of us can get along quite well simply by typing words into a search engine and looking through the results, this technique doesn't always deliver what we want. It can take some trawling through search results before the gems are found, so there are times when these more advanced search techniques come into their own - the trick is knowing when to deploy the tools, and which ones to use.

Learn more from WebWise about how you can improve your internet searches.

Hajar Javaheri explores the history of search engines.

Try the advanced features on these search engines:
Bing
Ask
Google

Increasingly we take the latter option, and from a pure efficiency point of view it's not difficult to see why. Many of us have broadband now, which gives us fast internet access. Our computers might be in the living room, and may be switched on more than they are switched off. If we are out and about, we've mobile phones which can access the internet. We have constant access to powerful search engines.

So, it's a simple – and quick – matter to tap in a search term and see what comes out.

There are times when the internet can provide information it is very difficult or time consuming to get from other sources. Researching a medical condition is one example (though it's important to take care to go to reliable sources, avoid hype and treble check your facts if you do this). Reading multiple reviews of films or books that interest you is something else it's easier to research online. You most likely have others from your own personal experience.

But we also use computers to check up on mundane, everyday things that in earlier times we might have kept in our heads. How many telephone numbers and addresses of friends and relatives can you remember and how many do you rely on being stored in your phone?

As far as the internet is concerned, there is a strong case that it is simply continuing a situation that has been going on ever since the 'mass media' became a reality. Television news, for example, usually doesn't deliver in-depth analysis. It reports on what has happened. Even news analysis programmes don't go deep into the finer detail. If you want to get behind what's happening in areas of current affairs which are important to you, then you need to do your own research. So, the argument goes, modern media can act as a 'dumbing down' agent.

A counter-argument is that the internet is completely the opposite of television. Rather than simply 'feeding' you with information that you absorb in a one-way interaction, the internet opens things up and allows for a more explorative approach. For example, you can use the internet to research those deeper details of current affairs issues which concern or interest you. Many people find the internet invaluable as a research resource for all kinds of local, national and international topics.

These two arguments aren't mutually exclusive. The reality is that sometimes we use computers and the internet in particular as a one way source of information, at other times we use it more expansively.

There is another side to all this, and it is a neurological one. How do computers affect the ways in which our brains work?

There are research reports which suggest that we think differently if we have prolonged exposure to computers, that we lose our capacity for empathy with other people, that we live more in the day-to -day and stop thinking critically about things.

Even the former Chief Executive of Google, Eric Schmidt is on the record as having said , in 2010 at the World Economic Forum in Davos:

"As the world looks to these instantaneous devices... you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines and so forth... That probably has an effect on cognition, probably has an effect on reading."

In everyday life it can be difficult to assess a view like this. We just get on with things, rather than sitting back and wondering whether computers are changing the ways in which we think. But you could try doing a little test on yourself. Remember that question I asked earlier about the telephone numbers and addresses? Well, how many do you know by heart?

You can also find out about the effect of the web on young brains in Hajar Javaheri's blog.

Sandra Vogel is a technology journalist who has written for many web sites and magazines. She's written several books on computing. As well as technology she enjoys running, growing vegetables and playing the saxophone.

But having an idea and actually making it happen are two very different things. After the turkey and tinsel splurge, good intentions can pile up. But as the January and February winter months kick in with their dark evenings and cold and rain, and we all get back to work, commitment can be difficult to maintain.

There are ways of using the internet to help keep the fire in your belly, though, and if getting healthier is a goal you have for 2012 it might be worth taking advantage.

It's often said that sharing our aims and ambitions with other people makes it more likely we will achieve them. One of the reasons that works is because once other people know we are doing something it is difficult to back out. We don't want other people to think we can't see something through!

Two great strategies that can help here are starting a blog and committing to fundraising. Both are really easy to do on the web. There are free web sites you can use to set up and manage blogs - Blogger, and Wordpress are two popular options. Meanwhile, online fundraising sites such as JustGiving and Localgiving.com make it easy to set up your own fundraising page for whatever good cause you wish to support.

You can use a blog to record progress towards your goals, milestones you achieve along the way and how you feel about your progress. Writing a diary like this can help you see how far you've come, even just a few weeks after starting out.

A blog can help on the dark days as well as the successful ones. If you have a setback, recording it can elicit encouraging comments from readers, and these can often spur you on. Tell friends and family about your blog and the chances are they'll read it regularly, applauding your successes and offering support when you need it.

Adding charity fundraising to your goal can also give you a really compelling obligation to succeed. Fundraising websites give a running total of how much money family and friends have pledged to your chosen good cause, and the amounts can really mount up. This reminder of how much money your good cause stands to lose if you drop out of your challenge can be a real motivator.

It's not all about blogging and raising money, though. There are other ways technology can help you achieve a fitter, healthier lifestyle.

If you want to take up running or other active sports, there are web sites to help. Many offer training plans designed for all ages and abilities. Some work in conjunction with smartphone apps or specialist sports watches which can record routes, times and distances automatically and then upload this information. As your information cumulates and you see how much you’ve done since you started, using sites like these can become normal. You'll feel strange when you’ve not logged a run - that's when you know you've really changed your lifestyle!

Meanwhile, if want to take up a new sport, the web can help you find a local club. It can identify potential sports you've not thought of trying, and you'll probably find there are far more friendly, social sports clubs in your area than you thought there were.

And if you're interested in healthy eating, there are plenty of food related websites that explain nutritional information and deliver recipes you can try out. Again, many of these have interactive elements, allowing you to see what other people think of recipes or information, and to log your own comments.

With so much on offer anyone with a new year's resolution to get healthier ought to find resources that can help them achieve their goal. Now all you need to do is make the most of them!

Remember, if you're not used to exercising take care and get started slowly. Follow this guide from the  BBC Health website to making sure you stay safe and well while working out.

For extra inspiration look at:

Wendy M Grossman's article on tennis websites.

Charlie Swinbourne's guides to football and cricket.

Sandra Vogel is a technology journalist who has written for many web sites and magazines. She's written several books on computing. As well as technology she enjoys running, growing vegetables and playing the saxophone.

Father Christmas in his grotto

Then there are the price differentials. Shopping online can save you a huge amount of money. My most recent example was buying a single long term wear gas-permeable contact lens. I lost one, and the optician quoted me a price for a replacement. I decided to shop online and I got the replacement for half the price. It took about two weeks to arrive from 'foreign parts', but I'm very happy with it.

At this time of year many of us will be thinking about buying somewhat more exciting items than contact lenses and many of us will turn to the internet, some for the first time ever, to help lighten the load of Christmas shopping.

It's worth remembering though that not everything is rosy in the online shopping garden and, to keep the metaphor going, little insects can jump up and sting you. Thankfully there are some basic guidelines that'll help keep you shop safely.

• When you find something you want, and have moved to the checkout, make sure you double check the total price. Do delivery costs seem fair or will you end up paying more than you'd anticipated and does the cost seem high or low to you?
• Check delivery times. You may find sites sign you up for first class or courier delivery automatically when you don't really need these. Switching to a longer wait can save a few pounds. In some cases it will make delivery free.
• Check the terms and conditions of the seller. Make sure you are satisfied with how they handle your personal details - and you have checked or unchecked any boxes that authorise or stop the seller passing your personal details on to third parties.
• Popular ways to pay online are by credit and debit card or by PayPal. PayPal is not difficult to set up, and it is a sort of holding account for your money, though it does make small charges on some transactions. Check their website for the full details. The UK Consumer Credit Act means that credit card purchases between £100 and £30,000 are protected regardless of where the seller is located. Faulty, broken and undelivered goods are among those purchases for which the credit card company shares responsibility with the seller to refund you. Note that debit card transactions are not protected so it is not a good idea to use a debit card for online shopping.
• Be healthily wary of any seller you have not used before. Novel and distinctive items often come from sellers you might not find on the high street, and that's one of the great joys of buying online. But how can you be sure the seller you like the look of is bona fide? There are a few rules of thumb. Web sites which have been around for a while are probably OK. Newer ones are probably OK too, in fact, but you might want to be a little more circumspect about them. All web sites should have a real address - in a location that actually exists.
• One of the reasons we buy online is to reduce costs. And as my contact lens example shows, you can save quite a lot of money over high street prices. But do check prices before making a purchase to be sure that you are getting a good deal. Online doesn't always mean cheaper. There are online price comparison web site that will automate some of the checking process for you, but they don't do all the leg work. Depending on the overall cost of what you're buying, shopping around could reap substantial savings.
• Keep a record of everything you order, so that you are ready to chase anything that doesn't arrive when it should.

Don't let any of this put you off doing some of your Christmas shopping on the internet this year. It really can result in some wonderful gifts. Just bear in mind some basic common sense. If a web site looks dodgy, a price too good to be true, a product specification way beyond what you'd expect, be sceptical.

Oh, and please don't leave all to the last minute!

Crowdfunding can reach more people online

 When the store was razed to the ground by fire many local people felt they'd lost something special, and many not so local people empathised. One person decided to do something about it. Blogger Mark Thompson set up a Pledge Bank page on which he pledged to give £10 in support of the owners' plan to rebuild their shop if 1,000 other people did the same.

Pledge Bank doesn't just support projects that are about money. You could also pledge to take an action or give some time to a cause. You can pledge to do anything as long as a specified number of other people will help. The caveats are that nothing illegal is allowed, and the site managers reserve the right to remove pledges if they don't fit with the site's family friendly ethos. There's a time limit on pledges too, so that anyone setting up a pledge will know pretty quickly if they've met their goal.

The Reeves store Pledge Bank initiative is an example of crowdfunding, a way of generating relatively large sums of money from numerous people who are happy to put a small amount each into the pot.

Many people think of crowdfunding as an internet phenomenon, but in fact it is a much older concept. Look around your home town and you may see statues with inscriptions saying they were built by public subscription. One very famous example is Nelson's column in London. Built between 1840 and 1843 its cost was raised partly by public subscription.

In much more modern terms, there are plenty of charities and good causes that ask people to give a regular but relatively small donation of a few pounds a month. All these small amounts can add up to a very big pot indeed, and they are another example of crowdfunding which can take place without any use of the internet.

What the internet lends to crowdfunding is the ability to reach large numbers of people. This means a wide range of projects becomes available, and the chances of any project reaching its goal can be increased too. There are plenty of crowdfunding websites which bring together organisations and individuals looking for help with their chosen projects.

Crowdfunder is one such web site. Anyone can sign up with their own idea, and if people like it, they'll put some money towards it. When I visited the Crowdfunder website there were pitches from people wanting to make films, produce smartphone accessories, set up shops, do scientific projects, and more. You read the pitches at the site, and decide whether you want to contribute to the amount of money required by any pitch that captures your imagination.

The Kiva website offers an alternative way of financing good causes. Instead of encouraging small donations that add up to a larger sum, Kiva lets you make a small loan to an individual or group of people, and the loan is paid back over time. Loans are made to people in other countries who would otherwise have difficulty raising money. Loans are small in our terms, but they can change lives. Kiva was founded in 2005 and since then it has generated more than $200,000,000 in loans.

Crowdfunding, then, is a wide ranging activity that covers a lot of ground. The chances are that whatever your own interests you can find a way to make a small amount of money work hard and some good.

Read Helen Purves' blog 'On the money: making charity easier'.

Belongings you no longer need can be rehomed online

The internet is great for helping me realise these ambitions thanks to sharing and donating services which let me reach lots of people at once simply by listing what I’ve got on offer.

One of the best known networks of people who want to give things away to each other is Freecycle.  Its origins lie in a very small, local recycling scheme set up in Tucson, Arizona in 2003. Since then it has grown to reach more than 85 countries and to have millions of members.

But the service is also very, very local. It works on the basis of groups which cover relatively small geographical areas. You can sign up at the website and then join groups based in your location. You can join as many groups as you want to, but be careful – it’s a busy site. My most local group, focussed on one London borough, has more than 6,000 members.

Once you’ve signed up it is easy to make an ‘offer’ of a particular item. People will see the offer, decide if they like it, and get in touch for more information. Just because you don’t want or need something doesn’t mean others won’t find it useful.

I once listed a duplicate music CD on Freecycle and ended up giving it to an orchestra member who was about to play the piece and wanted to hear different recordings of it!

The service also works when you want something. Just post a ‘wanted’ notice and see what happens.  I’ve picked up some amazing things this way, including a wonderful old bicycle that just needed new tyres and a service to get it on the road.

Discipline is important when browsing what’s on offer as it’s easy to get tempted and end up acquiring more stuff. This rather defeats the de-cluttering concept but I have been known to succumb. Particularly when someone is giving away a ‘big bag of books’.

Freecycle isn’t the only scheme of this kind available. A very similar alternative is Freegle, a UK based network whose name reflect their ethos - ‘FREEly Given, Locally, Easily’. And there are other takes on the reuse/recycle theme.

If you need some equipment for a project, or have something you think others might like to borrow, then the Ecomodo web site might be able to help. You can even use Ecomodo to set up local ‘lending circles’ that benefit people in a small area or a shared interest group can pool resources.

And there are a number of online recycling services specialising in particular types of goods. For example, if you’ve got old computer equipment you can offer it on specialist websites that concentrate on this area such is Donate A PC which is specifically targeted at charities and not for profit organisations.

You can also check charity websites to see if they will collect items from you. The British Heart Foundation, for example, will collect furniture and electrical items – and you can book collections on their website.

The internet really does offer a lot of potential to help you de-clutter your own space without simply sending a lot of stuff off to landfill. And that has to be a good thing.

Visit our Internet Basics course Registering on a website to learn about signing up to sites.

Sandra Vogel is a technology journalist who has written for many web sites and magazines. She's written several books on computing. As well as technology she enjoys running, growing vegetables and playing the saxophone.