Emmott On Technology: Finding the Information You Need Right Now

Emmott On Technology: Finding the Information You Need Right Now
Thursday, April 25, 2013

A teenager recently asked his mom, “What did you do before the Internet if you wanted to know something like who starred in that movie or what is the capitol of Missouri?”

“Well,” she replied, “We just sat there and didn’t know.”

The Internet has certainly changed the way we find things out and what we can “know.” On the other hand there is waaay too much information online and finding what you want can be a challenge. The champion system for helping us navigate the web is of course Google. (Lots more on Google later) However there are many simple easy to use resources if you can find them.

For example look here for a simple and easy to use listing of telephone area codes in North America.

If you see that person you need to call is in the 208 area code (Idaho) what time is it there? This site will show you.

I sometimes wish people on the East coast took the time to check this out when they call me at 8:00 a.m. their time and it is 5:00 for me.

What is the best (or worst) seat on the flight you are booking online? Use SeatGuru to find out.

How much is your house worth or what are they asking for that condo down the street? Check with Zillow.

How fast is your Internet connection? Test it at Speedtest.net.

Will Bill Gates really send you $5,000 when you click his photo on Facebook? Check it out as well as the Nigerian finance minister, the sick child chain letter and the latest e-mail virus at Snopes.

No list of online information resources would be complete without mentioning Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia. It is crowd sourced, written entirely by volunteers without professional editing and is remarkably accurate…except when it is not.

Do you own your webpage? You can find out who owns a registered domain name with Whois. It is a searchable database of every registered domain name in the world. You can access whois from Go Daddy, Network Solutions or any other domain registration service. Whois is usually found as a link toward the bottom of the main page.

If you are interested in buying a specific web name such as Milwaukeedentist.com you can see if it is already taken, who owns it, and possibly buy it.

As a dentist there are only two resources you need for everything important in the dental world: Emmott on Technology and Dentalcompare. However to be fair here are a couple of other interesting online dental resources.

When a new patient presents with a mystery implant that needs work, how do you determine what implant they have in place? If you can’t connect with the dentist who originally placed it you can check online at What Implant is That?

Are you interested in the new “All on Four” procedure? Does it really work? What is the proper procedure? You can discuss this and review cases using an online forum. A forum is the equivalent of a study club. But it is a virtual study club whose members are from anywhere in the world and it can be accessed 24-7. For the all on four treatment, check the Allonfourum, (cute name huh).

For the most part people are familiar with using Google to find a web page, but Google has a great deal of sometimes surprising functionality built into the system that most people have no idea exists. For example type 573 + 267 into the Google search box and hit enter. Google becomes a calculator giving you the answer (840). It can do a lot more than add, type in square root 200 for an example (14.142…).

Here are some more functions waiting for you to find them:

  • 259 dollars in pounds
  • Quarter inch in mm
  • Weather in Las Vegas
  • HSIC
  • Define dentist
  • Toronto Maple Leafs

Look across the top of your basic Google page and you will see the other main search options such as Images, Maps, YouTube and News. Within each of these primary search areas you can use tools to improve your results. For example under images you can use search tools to filter your results by size, color, type and time.

If you are feeling really adventurous click the more option and then even more. This gives you a complete list of the various Google services. One option you should consider as a dentist is Google Alerts. This free service alerts you via e-mail whenever a key word you enter (such as your name) is mentioned online.

In the future you will never have to just sit there and not know. The future is coming and t will be amazing!

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