In every field of interest, work, and education, there are always questions to be answered. Whether it’s a common question asked over and over by someone new to the area, an opinion question that could have lots of answers, or an in-depth, technical question only a very experienced person would be able to answer, there is usually someone willing to answer it. But how do you find these people? Or where can you go to share your knowledge on a particular subject with others? A forum is a perfect place to discover these things.

There are usually two types of forums. Some forums are just one page of a game, company, organization or project’s website. This type of forum is to ask questions about the website and what the website offers or represents. The questions that are asked on this forum are often directed to owners or developers of the website and are sometimes answered by frequent users or members of the website. Someone could use this forum to ask a question about a feature on another page that they don’t understand or that isn’t working properly. The website programmers or technicians can respond or be made aware of the technical issues on the site. On the other hand, forums of this type can also be used by the site owners to make announcements or ask questions of the user base. Check out Copper.net's forum here.

The other type of forum is not supplemental to the website, but the reason for the website. Some websites are created solely (or at least largely) for the purpose of hosting several forums on a subject of interest, like baseball, or a type of marketing. On these sites, there are usually a variety of forums on subtopics, making it easier to find questions asked on a certain element of the subject of interest. This is a great place to do some research. If you are new to a subject, you are likely to find frequently asked questions from the past to which you could benefit from reading the answers. If you don’t find a question that’s already been asked, you can add a new one of your own. This type of site is also a good place to brainstorm or share ideas with others who are experienced and interested in something you are. You can spend hours asking and answering questions on forums.

Although forums vary somewhat, they all contain some similar formatting. When you first enter a forum, you will see a list of questions you can click on to read and answer. At the top of this list, you will often find the stickies. These are the questions that people tend to ask over and over. They have already been answered and resolved, but they have been “stuck” to the top of the list so everyone will see them. This is to minimize the amount of people asking the exact same question that has already been discussed and answered in the past. You should read the stickies if you are new to a forum or the subject to keep from asking something that has already been asked dozens of times before.

The rest of the questions listed are open questions, usually listed newest to oldest in the time that they were posted. When you click on an open question, you will see the original question, and (if any) the responses from others to the question. As you scroll down the replies, you will probably notice these elements:
1. Replies: There will be both replies to the original question, and replies to other replies (if someone was to disagree or wished to expand on the response).
2. Quoted text: Usually in italics, this is a way for someone to respond to or expound on something that was already said.
3. User identification: Each individual reply has a screen name, photo, signature, possibly some links to other websites. This is a way for a user to represent themselves.
4. User rating. In order to know how experienced or reputable an answer is to your question, every user has some sort of rating that shows how long this member has been asking or answering questions. You may also see a rating of the person’s reputation that others have given them because they answered the question so well.

Forums are a great place to connect with others from all over the world about a common interest to gain insight, learn about new topics and techniques, or share your knowledge with others.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net. Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Mozilla Firefox, the second most popular Internet browser, is free to download and compatible to Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Firefox was one of the first browsers to have tabbed browsing, which has become standard for most browsers.

Firefox at first glance looks similar to Internet Explorer and is very easy to use. It features tabbed browsing, private browsing, history, and many options you would find on Internet Explorer. The following features are used on some other browsers but are worth mentioning. You will not find these features on Internet Explorer.

* Bookmarks, known on IE as “Favorites”, can be created with just one click on the star icon in the address bar.

* Tabs can be dragged into a separate window with your mouse.

* “Password Manager” offers to remember (or never remember) password information that you are entering on a website (also, instead of an intrusive pop-up like on other browsers, this feature displays briefly under the toolbars, in that way being more of a helpful option than an intrusive one).

* Links to downloads open the “Download manager” that displays your downloads' names and progress, and saves them for later reference. You can pause and restart downloads, and, when it is complete, simply double-click it from the list to run the installation.

Firefox is probably best known for having more than 6,000 customization options! Some of these features (known as add-ons) would be unavailable or automatically integrated on your Internet Explorer browser. The only problem with that is, if you don't want the features, they're download on the browser anyway. This is why Firefox is much faster to download—you can pick the options you want later!

These 6000 add-ons can be viewed from the Firefox homepage, or by using the Add-ons Manager in your Firefox browser. Sometimes Firefox will notify you when an add-ons is necessary to load certain parts of webpages. Most of the add-ons, however, are just fun or techy features that will change the look of your browser or add a cool accessory that could come in handy while surfing online. Here is a brief snippet of the wide variety of add-ons available for the Firefox browser:

• “Personas” are different “skins” for your Firefox browser. You can find thousands of themes celebrating your favorite music, movie, cause, etc! Change your skin everyday if you want!

• “Read it Later” is a great way to save a website, but not get it mixed in with your long-term bookmarks. You can access them offline, and check them off when you've read them.

• “WOT”--a.k.a. Websites Of Trust—this feature will help keep you safe from harmful websites.

• “Yoono” sidebar is a quick way to stay constantly updated on your social networking outlets, like Facebook, Twitter, and instant messaging.

Firefox is continually improving and increasing it's add-ons, as well as speed and security technology. Firefox 3.5.3, is faster and safer than before and is now available to download for free. You can read all about security and speed features and improvements, browse add-ons library, and download Firefox on your computer at firefox.com.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

Most search queries are relatively simple on a search engine like Google. Usually in the first try, a few keywords will answer basic, popular questions. Obscure and past topics, or advanced and genre-specific searches are sometimes hard to find. The additional features on Google are ideal for this type of extensive research.

Google.com has categories to refine searches at the top of the page, such as Images, Maps, and Shopping. The “more” option, has additional queries that may be of interest , such as Finance or Blogs. The “even more>>” link directs users to a page of all the categories and other special features, including alerts that can be sent to your email for specific topics, links to popular resources, like YouTube, and Google tools and downloads, like the google mail and browser. Each item has a short description of how it can be used.

Many research topics have subtopics, categories, and fields that can be explored on Google. A “Show options...” link is available at the top of the search results of every query. When a user clicks here, a sidebar displays to the left of the search results with additional search tools.

The first section is videos, forums or reviews of the keyword(s) queried. The next section has the option to specify the age of article or website. The third section changes the layout of the search results to include pictures or more text.

The fourth section has four options:

• Standard view-the normal view showing the search results of the keywords queried.

• Related searches-common topics related to the query

• Wonder wheel-related topics are displayed on spokes with the keyword(s) in the center. For example, for the keyword “dial-up”, the wonder wheel shows “dial-up isp” and “dial-up speed” as related searches. A sub category (when clicked) becomes the main category and shows more subheadings. “dial-up speed” brings up “dial-up compression” and “56K dial-up”.

• Timeline-shows the graph of search results for the queried keywords over time. Underneath the graph is a listing of results in chronological order. Each decade, year, month, etc., on the timeline graph can be clicked to expand the results over that time period. The earliest search results will query books written on the topic.

There are other search options available on Google.com. The advanced search link on the home page leads to a detailed page that helps a user make specific choices about what type of results should be displayed. The “Topic-specific search engines from Google” section at the bottom of this page shows multiple genres that may be of interest to advanced searchers.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!