Barrie Home Inspector

Home Maintenance and Tips for Home Owners

Tag: search

Google Search Tips

Personal Interest

Google Search Tips. Searching on Google can be a magical experience once you find out how to make your search queries efficient. By making efficient I mean using some tricks or the cheat sheet provided by Google itself to quickly find what you actually require. Having being hooked onto Google for a long time now, I have come across some amazing search tricks which can change the way you look at Google today.

 

Google Search TricksIn this article I will list down the search tricks which I use quite frequently. Be it finding time, meanings or watching the cricket score, searching PDF’s, with Google as the search engine life cannot be more simpler. Here are the 10 most amazing Google Search tricks:

1. Different Types of Files at your will
How many times would you have asked for materials (PDF, PPT, DOC) for a particular topic from a friend? Its almost everyday that we might have the necessity to ask them either for knowledge, preparing a presentation, white-paper or for case studies. Such times it mostly difficult to look out what to exactly search for because most of the times you don’t know about the topic at hand. But this petty keyword unleashes its lethal power at such occasions.

Let’s say I want to implement a case study on SOA which means I have to read a lot of information for SOA. So I just have to find materials which might have already been uploaded on the web in the form of PDF’s, DOC’s or PPT’s. These materials can be easily obtained by doing a search for:

2. Scholarly Search
If you want some authenticity of the materials then it would be better to find the materials from educational institutes or universities. For this use theGoogle scholar search. But suppose you don’t like to switch to Google scholar search you can add the same query with an additional parameter to the normal Google search box,

3. Meanings of any word in an instant
Now you do not have to carry a dictionary or install a dictionary software just for the purpose of finding out a meaning of a word. With the wealth of information in Google’s hands, its a piece of cake to find out the meaning of the word. Just use the define: keyword. The meaning would of course be displayed but also a set of other links which might have an alternative definition are also given out with the link to read more about it.

You would argue here that, a dicitionary gives out more information than this. But what about words that don’t actually fall within the vocabulary. Suppose you want to know what SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is then you would have no choice. Google Search comes to your rescue in this case,

4. Find the time of any location
Many of us might be probably working for client which are based at different locations. And communication has to be carried out frequently carried out in such cases. But before a communication you have to know which time zone the location is falling into otherwise you would be causing a disturbance.

I have seen people installing time zone software for showing the time of the location they would be calling to. But with Google at your hands you don’t have to install any software. It would be just simple to use a query for finding the current time such as,

psst….look closely the time on the little clock graphic. It also shows the perfect time!

5. Weather at your fingertips
I had been to GOA for a Christmas vacation in the last week of December. But I made a mistake of not finding out the temperature of GOA before leaving. Had I known that it is hot even in the winter I would not have made the mistake of carrying additional luggage consisting of blankets and jackets.

If you are thinking to visit a place it is useful to know what the temperature of the place is before hand, it can make efficient packing. Google helps you here too. Just use this query without asking anybody or waiting for the news to make a weather report. I wish I had thought of this!

6. Google does live commentary too!
Indians are cricket fanatics. But its amusing to see the organizations here trying to put together tactics to devoid cricket lovers from wasting time to watch the cricket scores instead of doing their work. What I think they fail to understand is that by blocking the live cricket scoring sites they are actually making the employees more curios and provoking them to hunt for proxy networks or listen to the radio or chat with their friends elsewhere.

Jokes apart, you actually don’t need proxy networks to view the live cricket scores if you at least have access to Google. If you want to find the latest info about all the cricket matches then just type,

But if you want to find out only about a particular match then use only the names of the two playing nations,

Remember that the scorecard will come only when the play is going on.

7. Calculate with your browser
Every OS has a calculator inbuilt but when the browser is the thing which is constantly open whey bother to open up a calculator. Open Google and straight away type your mathematical expression. You can go all the way frombasic arithmetic to trigonometrical expressions. This is simply amazing stuff accomplished by Google.

8. Compare your currency with others
Now that the dollar is declining, the rest of the world must be busy trying to check the impact of the dollar on their currencies. But first of all one must know how much a particular currency amounts to when cashed in another currency. Google’s inbuilt currency converter just does this.

9. Keep track of the stocks
With the booming stock market it is very important to track the stocks on a day to day basis. Putting a stock ticker in the search box is the most obvious thing you would think of. But it is not always you would remember the stock ticker, you should add the keyword “stocks:” to the company name.

The best part of the obtained result is that it provides a chart which shows the trend in the company’s stock along with important statistics.

Note: Currently the results are restricted to the companies listed in the US stock markets.

10. Wanna find some faces?
This is most interesting trick. You might be needing images for various occasions and searching for images is the most difficult thing because what we expect might not be possibly mapped to a query. But Google has a parameter in place for images in situations we need an image which describes a face.

Suppose I search for the term “happy” then the Google results page displays smileys. But I would like to use images of happy people. Even if I choose the term as “happy face” the results don’t show images which contain people. For this there is a parameter “imgtype” which you can use with the URL. For this put in the URL as follows:

There are many more variations which can be bought about with the above tricks thus making your search experience not only enriching but also exciting. If I have missed any tricks of common usage, feel free to mention it.

Update 1: Google keeps on experimenting new ways of searching. If you liked the above tricks then don’t miss out my article which mentions how to use thenew search experiments introduced by Google. Believe me, they are brilliant!

Update 2 : Search for your favorite movie information with Google and enjoy it even more. Have fun with the 5 Most Fantastic Movie Search

Government Trying to Infringe On Our Privacy

Personal Interest

Government Trying to Infringe On Our Privacy.  A majority of Canadians think that the Conservatives’ proposed online surveillance Bill C-30 is too intrusive and should be defeated, according to a poll by Angus-Reid. The poll, conducted February 23-24 and surveying 1,011 respondents on the polling firm’s online panel, found 53 per cent of Canadians believe the bill is too intrusive, compared to only 27 per cent who believe the it is necessary to fight online criminal activity.

The Privacy International investigation revealed that surveillance companies commonly promote virtually unlimited monitoring capabilities to governments and police agencies. For example, Italian-based Innova offers “solutions for the interception of any kind of protocols and IP-based communication, such as web browsing, email and web-mails, social networks, peer-to-peer communication, chat and videochat.”

“The government has a voracious appetite for our private information. Now, with electronic records, we do that by linking electronic databases without ever creating the actual, old file. It’s all already there,” said Micheal Vonn, policy director with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

Section 33 tells us that, ‘The Minister may designate persons or classes of persons as inspectors for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of this Act.’..Section 34 spells out the sweeping powers of these “inspectors.” And, if they sound Orwellian, welcome to the world of Section 34.

The inspectors may “enter any place owned by, or under the control of, any telecommunications service provider in which the inspector has reasonable grounds to believe there is any document, information, transmission apparatus, telecommunications facility or any other thing to which this Act applies.” And, once he or she is in, anything goes. The inspector, says the bill, may “examine any document, information or thing found in the place and open or cause to be opened any container or other thing.” He or she may also “use, or cause to be used, any computer system in the place to search and examine any information contained in or available to the system.”

There is an inherent lack of transparency in this bill that extends way beyond what the government is telling us, are you surprised? Included in this bill is the fact that, by default everyone has the right to ask any company that is subject to the law what information they have about him or her, how they’ve used it and to whom they’ve disclosed it. That is, unless that right is overridden by Section 9. Section 23 of C-30 essentially says that any personal information that is handed over without a warrant under the lawful access law has to be treated in the same way under PIPEDA as information disclosed in response to a law enforcement request. Here’s where the gag order kicks in. If the person exercises his lawful right to seek his or her personal information and accounting of its use, the ISP is prohibited from telling him or her unless the police, national security agencies or competition cops give their OK. And they can refuse to give their OK on a number of relatively flexible bases.

Upgrades to REALTOR.ca

Real Estate

Ottawa, ON – December 1, 2011 – Earlier this week, a new version of REALTOR.ca was released. This version introduces exciting new features and tools that allow users to customize REALTOR.ca to find what they’re looking faster and easier.

Collapsible panels on the map search page for customized views (Red arrow #1)

  • The map search page is currently divided into three panels with the search criteria on the left, the interactive map in the middle and the property thumbnail list on the right.
  • Users can now collapse either the criteria panel or the thumbnail panel to have a larger image of the map, allowing much greater flexibility in customizing their view of REALTOR.ca

Draw an area – Custom map search tool (Polygon Map Tool – BETA format) (Red arrow #2)

  • Using their mouse, users can now draw free form shapes on the map to more accurately define the location criteria for their search.
  • Users will be able to map a specific neighbourhood or region and use that as their location criteria to find properties that are located within the defined area.
  • The map tool is being released in BETA format as we continue to fine-tune its capabilities.
  • Please note – we are continuing to improve functionality and enhancing the user experience.

Auto-sizing to fit high resolution (HD) monitors

  • Currently REALTOR.ca’s display area is a fixed size on every monitor. The new version will automatically re-size itself to eliminate the white space now seen on high resolution (HD) monitors.

Social media links

  • REALTORS® and Offices now have the ability to display links to their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

Orillia Real Estate Agents Optimization

Personal Interest, Real Estate

Orillia Real Estate Agents Optimization –  Google is constantly changing what it uses to rank websites.

SEO or Search Engines Optimization is a very important part of improving visibility to Search Engines.  The higher a site is ranked typically results in more visitors which equates to more money for commercial sites.  Searches can include image search, video search, news search or any specific text search.

The acronym “SEOs” can refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house.

Webmasters started realizing that adding keywords to site and their meta tags was increasing their visibility to search engines. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags could and did cause pages to rank for irrelevant searches. Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.

Webmasters who provide the content to fill the search results do not necessarily profit adequately for providing the content which allows search engines to deliver a ton of ads. Some of these same webmasters sell text links to other high margin or profitable sites. This is of course arbitrarily wrong because search engines want to be the middle man and want to profit from as many internet ad dollars as possible.

Black Hat SEO is tempting because your site can jump up in rankings quickly and the Black Practices actually do work, temporarily. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings; that is, until these same sites get banned for using unethical practices. It’s just not worth the risk. Use efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher, and stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO. Here’s a few articles that can get you on the road to knowing search engine optimization.

The Google Sandbox Effect is a theory used to explain why newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership changes rank poorly in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). In other words new websites are put into a “sandbox” or a holding area and have their search ratings on hold until they can prove worthy of ranking.

Google appears not to have a Sandbox anymore if they ever did have one.  This articles author created www.orilliarealestateagents.info and within one week the site was on Google’s first page when seaching for Orillia Real Estate Agents.  This quick rise in ranking would seem to disprove the Sand Box affect claimed by many SEO consultants

Alliston Real Estate Agents

Personal Interest, Real Estate

Sarah Lunn is Innovative & Dedicated Real Estate agent.  Sarah prides herself on being a highly energetic, result driven professional. The combination of her experience in customer service, together with a diploma in Business Marketing from Georgian College, has allowed her  to develop a progressive edge in today’s real estate market.  If you are looking for that dream home, let Sarah Lunn help! Tell Sarah what you are looking for and she will do the search for you! Sarah promises that she will work relentlessly for you to find that perfect home.
Jim Bartley is a Professional Real Estate Agent who specializes in Buying or Selling – Alliston, Ontario Real Estate. Jim Bartley applies his Alliston home selling system in the Alliston, Ontario Real Estate market. Selling residential, condominium, multi family and investment property. Search for MLS listings, relocation services and a referral service for relocation are also a value added for the buyer and seller moving in and out of the "Alliston Ontario real estate" market.
Britton Ronan is the second generation in real estate, Britton understands very well the importance of setting goals. Being recognized by Prudential North America since his first year in the business as a Top Producer and in the past two years awarded Chairmans Circle Gold, ranking Britton and his team amongst the top 2% of the 65,000 realtors in the Prudential network. It is clear Britton and the Experience Sold Team take their goals seriously and do this by making their #1 Goal; Professional Service and Customer Satisfaction!
Mary Doldersun is a Professional Real Estate agent with RE/MAX.  You, the client are my no. 1 priority. I have been in the business for over 30 years and become a member of your family until the transaction is complete. Personal service and total dedication is my motto.
Mary Doldersum services the Tottenham, Alliston, Albion, Adjala Mono and Beeton areas and specialize in residential and commercial real estate.
Alliston is a settlement in Simcoe County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the Town of New Tecumseth since the 1991 amalgamation of Alliston and nearby villages of Beeton, Tottenham, and the Township of Tecumseth. The primary downtown area is located along Highway 89, known as Victoria Street.
Alliston grew as a commercial centre for the area farmers and was best known as a potato-growing area. It is still a major industry in the town and is celebrated by the annual Alliston Potato Festival. Honda of Canada Manufacturing operates a large auto manufacturing facility southeast of Alliston, currently consisting of three major factories.

Real Estate in Orillia

Personal Interest, Real Estate

Real Estate in Orillia. In Canada and the US,  real estate broker, real estate agent or realtor is a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate and endeavors to find property sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy. In the Canada, the relationship was originally established by reference to the English common law of agency, with the broker having a fiduciary relationship with his clients.

The Real Estate market has broadened widely with the advent of new technology. Globalization has had an immediate and powerful impact on real estate markets, making them an international working place. The rapid growth of the Internet has made the international market accessible to millions of consumers. A look at recent changes in homeownership rates illustrates this. Minority homeownership jumped by 4.4 million during the 1990s, reaching 12.5 million in 2000, according to the Fannie Mae Foundation. Foreign direct investment in U.S. real estate has increased sharply from $38 billion in 1997 more than $50 billion in 2002 according to U.S. 2000 Census data.

In consideration of the brokerage successfully finding a satisfactory buyer for the property, a broker anticipates receiving a commission for the services the brokerage has provided. Usually, the payment of a commission to the brokerage is contingent upon finding a satisfactory buyer for the real estate for sale, the successful negotiation of a purchase contract between a satisfactory buyer and seller, or the settlement of the transaction and the exchange of money between buyer and seller.

The median real estate commission charged to the seller by the listing (seller’s) agent is 6% of the purchase price. Typically, this commission is split evenly between the seller’s and buyer’s agents, with the buyer’s agent generally receiving a commission of 3% of the purchase price of the home sold.
In North America commissions on real estate transactions are negotiable. Local real estate sales activity usually dictates the amount of commission agreed to. Real estate commission is typically paid by the seller at the closing of the transaction as detailed in the listing agreement.

Flat Fee MLS generally refers to the practice in the real estate industry of a seller entering into an ” la carte service agreement” with a real estate broker who accepts a flat fee rather than a percentage of the sale price for the listing side of the transaction. The buyer’s broker is still typically offered a percentage though that could be a flat fee as well. A Flat Fee MLS brokerage typically unbundles the services a traditional real estate brokerage offers and lists the property for sale in the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS)  la carte without requiring the seller to use its services for valuation assistance, negotiating, transaction management and showing accompaniment.

 

Title Insurance has become a product that has changed the way property is transferred in Canada.  Title is at the very heart of every real estate transaction. A purchaser needs proof that the property being bought is free and clear of liens, that the seller really owns it, and can sell it. To do this the buyer must “search title”. This can be a long, complicated process. Lawyers (or their assistants) sometimes spend hours at the registry office going through books and then checking with various authorities for liens etc. Often, they have to search back 40 years before they can give their “opinion of title”, which is still not a guarantee – just an opinion.

 

Home inspection in Canada requires the services of a qualified and experienced professional. When selecting a Canadian home inspector cost should not be the only determining factor. It is vital that you know as much about a property as possible before you make the commitment to purchase it, so be sure to choose a home inspector that can perform a reliable inspection service.  I would always recommend using the home inspector who places first in Google rankings for the area you are looking to purchase.  Being first in Google is a good indication that he is a professional and will be the “go to person” in that area.

 

When buying property in the Innisfil Ontario area choose your agent from the www.innisfilrealestateagents.info site to get a professional agent who will provide you with personalized service and ensure your buying or selling experience is a pleasant experience with no surprises.

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