If your web browser crashes, do what I do. Just restart it. Don’t say you did something wrong. Don’t think that you must be so bad with computers that you crashed Internet. Just restart your browser, and if you have to restart your computer to do so, then do it as well. Most likely crash is not your fault.

2. The Internet Can Be Slow

No matter how fast your on-ramp to Internet may be, there will be times where it seems to take forever to load a web page. This is just nature of beast.

As Internet is a loosely connected network, if certain connections go down, computers may not always be able to route information via other networks. Thus access speed will suffer and your web browser will start to crawl. If this seems to be happening often, step away from computer, go outside and take a nice, long walk (unless it’s 30 degrees below). You can run your search another time when speed is back to normal.

And #1 thing you must realize when searching…

1. The Best Result Just May Be On Page 10

Most people only look through first page of search engine or directory results, usually top ten listings. Others may visit second page, but relatively very few people venture to higher numbered pages.

This is a shame – sometimes best results to a search engine query are not in first ten listings as they may only contain links to commercially driven sites or sites run by web owners who know how to manipulate listings. In some cases web sites containing perfectly good information may not be listed in top 10, 20, 50, or even top 100 results.

Obviously searching through many pages and pages of resulting sites will take extra time, especially if you do not have a high-speed connection to Internet. But, this time spent may well be worth it if you find some gems in rough! So if you have time, speed, and patience, browse through deeper results pages. You never know what you may find!

And that’s it – my top five list of things you must realize when searching. This covers slow access time, results not on page 1, browser bugs, web sites popping up and down and changing management, and need for sites to make money, causing advertisements to become more obtrusive. Gosh, that just makes you want to go out and search right now, doesn’t it? .

3 - OPEN CONTENT - Recently I came upon another type of open, cooperative project: an encyclopedia called Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com). According to those running project a "Wiki is a collection of interlinked pages each of which can be visited and edited by anyone." At this site, any one can visit, learn, enter a new article, or edit what he or she sees on a page discussing a subject they are knowledgeable about. The content of entire Wikipedia is open to all and may be modified by all. As time goes on it will reflect knowledge of our society.

4 - OPEN NETWORK - I was completely taken aback when I read Simon Garfinkel's article, The Internet Amenity, in March 2002 issue of Technology Review. He visited Boston University and discovered that he could get a FREE wireless connection to Web from his laptop. Evidently there are several universities that offer an "IP tone" - a connection and a temporary address. According to Garfinkel it is very cheap to do this. He speculates that eventually "IP tone" will be available everywhere, thus providing open networks.

It seems natural to take our marketing philosophy that is based on years of successful experience with old media, and transfer it to new medium of Web. But new media require new approaches. The old, closed, competitive thinking no longer works as well as it did. If they continue to follow their cut-throat approach to competitors, big record companies stand a good chance of disappearing altogether.

The Web is designed for sharing. The Web invites you to cooperate. The Web makes it easy for you to work together with others. The Web is open. If you want to be successful, base both your website and your business on a philosophy of openness.