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Search Australia
Help
The following are the main features of Search Australia.
Search Australia in JustLocal menus If you can't find what you want locally then you need to look further
afield using Search Australia. Search Australia is the search option in the menus on
every JustLocal postcode page. Search Australia only includes .au domains Search Australia has been set up to only include the domains ending in:
com.au, net.au, gov.au, edu.au, org.au, id.au, asn.au and selected sites.
Normally when you search using one of the major search engines you'll be
provided results which often list large overseas sites before Australian
sites. Search Australia thus prioritises Australian sites making it easier
to use the services of Australian businesses and organisations. Search Australia removes dozens of directory sites When people search often the only results they now get are directories
making it harder to find the actual size. Search Australia excludes dozens
of directory sites. Single letter access to search engines and the services I provide One of the major concerns I had is because around 95% of Australians
search using Google, that means Google is able to track the activities of
most Australians. By providing the ability to quickly use Bing and Yahoo
are well, those who are concerned about their privacy can quickly send a search request to an
alternate search engine. The theory is spread your searches across
multiple search providers and a single search provider only then sees a
smaller subset of your searches making it harder to profile you. You can enter any of the following letters and go direct to the search
engine, or enter the letter, a space and then what you want to search for,
and your criteria will be passed across to the search engine for you. G - Google B - Bing Y - Yahoo In addition, I provide clients with a number of services and these can
be accessed using a single letter, or a single letter followed by a
space and then the criteria. For example, the letter "j" followed by a
space and then a postcode will go direct to the JustLocal postcode page.
Entering the letter "w" followed by a space and then a word will go direct
to Word Check. Word Check provides a method to see if you are using using the preferred
Australian English spelling of a word and the ability to check the meaning of a word. J - JustLocal W- Word Check Keywords - Go direct to a site using a keyword As a result of reading an article on the top searched sites in
Australia I realised that when people search for the most popular
companies and brands they end up on a Google page showing search results
whereas they could have easily been sent direct to the desired site saving
time. In addition, often the business they are looking for is shown further
down the page or on the next page, which can mislead people causing them to go to the wrong site. Initially I started with the top 20 sites and then extended to the top
couple of hundred sites people search for.If you're looking for a company which is a household
name, chances are if you enter the commonly used name for the company
you'll go direct to their site. For example type in ANZ and you'll go
direct to the ANZ site. By using keyword access you save a considerable amount of time. How
much time you may ask. Below is a sample of the keywords you can use with
Search Australia. These keywords according to
Google are searched for around 70 million times a month. Many searches that
could just as easily go direct to the website. With the entire list
of keywords there would be over a billion
searches locally in Australia a year using the keywords. The search for the term Facebook by
itself would be close to 300 million times a year. Those searches end up displaying
Google search results. Entering Facebook or FB into Search
Australia and you go direct to Facebook. Next time you perform a search
and end up with a list of Google search results, ask yourself if perhaps
there is a better way. Gumtree Personalised Keyword List We're all different so it makes sense our preferred sites also differ.
Whilst we may use many of the common sites there will be sites that you
regularly use which wouldn't make the top Australian site list. You can
now create your own keyword list by selecting the My Keywords option. Enter a keyword, a comma and then the site and click on Save and you've
now added your own favourite site you can reach by entering a single
keyword. You can even replace keywords if for example you go to a
particular section of the site such as online banking. Your keyword list is saved on your computer so it is unique to you. I'd
suggest making a copy of your list because often as a computer support
person I clear out people's temporary data to speed up their computer and
cookies which are used to store your keywords would then be cleared. Copy
and paste your keyword list and save into a file stored onto your
computer. Add Search Australia as your default Search Engine The beauty of making Search Australia your default engine is not only
do you get all the convenient features but you turn your search field into
a quick access method to your favourite sites using your own keyword list. Internet Explorer In Internet Explorer all you need to do is to click on the Add Search
Australia to Internet Explorer link, select Make Default and click OK and
Search Australia becomes your default search engine. Now you can enter
keywords direct into the address field in Internet Explorer. Google Chrome In Google Chrome the Add Search Australia to Chrome link adds the
search engine as an option, but you will need to go into the settings and
make the search engine the default search engine. Go into Settings, Manage search engines and select Search
Australia as the default. You hover your mouse over the Search Australia
entry and click the Make default button. Firefox For Firefox select Add Search
Australia to Firefox and Search Australia becomes the default search using
the search field in Firefox. If you want to add Search Australia to the
address area as well you'll need to do this manually. In the address area enter about:config Now you can enter your search criteria or keyword into the address area
of Firefox. Other browsers Some browsers such as tablets and mobile phones don't have the ability
to change the search engine. For some devices you can make Search
Australia your home page, but if you can't do that then setting up a
button on your home page to the page is often the easiest approach. It is
also quick because all you need to do is press the home button and then
select the icon and you'll go direct to the Search Australia page. Ideally
however it would be good to simply have the feature as part of the browser
as you can on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox. For browsers where you can manually enter the search engine (such as
the older version of Opera) you use the address as shown for Firefox and
then often you'll need to enter something list %s after the equal sign. Set Search Australia as your home page Much to my surprise when I've been assisting clients supporting their
computers and let them know an old trick I used to see if a client's
computer had had their browser hijacked. I'd add my search engine to their
browser and if it had been changed, it meant they'd either installed
software which replaced the search engine, generally without their
knowledge and against their wishes, or they'd been hijacked. Installing
the search engine again was a quick fix and when time is money quick fixes
which work are appreciated by clients. What further surprised me was a number of clients also wanted to make
Search Australia their home page. The home page and search engine are two
places malicious programs usually affect/infect, so having both of these set
to something the client can easily see, means they feel more confident
their computer hasn't been hijacked at least with regards to their
browser. The 'Set as Home Page' link is provided to assist Internet Explorer users to
set Search Australia as their home page. If you use another browser you'll need to
manually set your home page. Handy keywords If find the following keywords I've added to the main list to be very
useful Weather (and BOM) for the Bureau of Meteorology site. Privacy Please be aware that any search critera you enter into any search
engine is recorded somewhere. Nothing is private online. In terms of the data
entered into Search Australia your data will not be shared with others by
Online Connections and
will be treated with respect and appropriately confidentiality. The recent
NSA Prism scandal shows us that many others may have access to our online
data without our knowledge. Short of not using the internet that is
outside our control. Please enjoy Search Australia. I still have a couple of enhancements I
will add to Search Australia but right now I find Search Australia to be
extremely useful and I use it many times a day. Even when I want to
search using Google I use Search Australia and simply enter G before what
I want to search for. I don't lose any of the functionality of the search
engines and I gain direct access to many of the sites I use every day. I
trust you will find Search Australia as useful. |