Who let wolves out?

The internet wolves, that is.

Yeah, they're out. The wolves, that is. And they're acting like -- well, they're acting like wolves. Imagine that.

Banana tree plants do what banana tree plants do. Under proper circumstances, banana tree plants produce, well, as you know, they produce bananas.

Try as you might to change a banana tree plant's behavior, it ain't gonna happen. You can dress that tree up to look like a rubber tree. But you won't get any rubber. You're still going to get bananas.

Dogs sniff doggie butts and lick themselves. Dogs have even been known to poop on your clean floor. But hey, they're just acting like dogs. You expect this type of behavior from a dog.

What type of behavior are you accustomed to from a wolf?

You wouldn't expect wolves to show you loyalty, would you? Nope. You'd expect a wolf to take whatever it could from you. And run off into night.

Never to look back. No phone calls. No postcard. No how'ya doin', can I help? Wolves take what they can grab. Don't plan on hearing from them -- until they're hungry again. Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mam.

You could try to contact them. It'll waste your time. But you could try. Wolves don't answer phone calls or emails when their bellies are full. They only howl when they're in hunt.

Yeah. I'm referring to internet wolves. If they looked like a wolf, you'd know how to stay away from them.

But internet wolves come at you all dolled up to look like a, well, they might look like a rubber tree.

You're not stupid. So how do they get away with that?

These wolves will go to extreme lengths to fool you. They sell hell out of their trustworthiness. They'll even pretend to be real people. Just like you.

--- What is an Internet Sourcer? ---

The Internet Sourcer is a relatively new position for many organizations. The most common use of a Sourcer is in recruiting and talent-search fields. Usually, a Sourcer scours Web for resumes and candidates using several search techniques to ensure their searches are complete and accurate. Some of better Sourcers come from computer industry and work independently as well as have an extreme amount of focus, patience, and inquisitiveness.

--- Data Mining ---

Data mining uses various techniques to examine data and organize that data into a meaningful presentation. This is also a part of an area known as Knowledge Management---an entirely different world and best left for a later tome.

* Finding Information

As applied to Internet Sourcing, data mining consists of a set of search techniques (i.e., Flip Search, X-Ray, Peel Back) to acquire information. These techniques allow you to locate relevant and hidden information on Internet that would otherwise be out of your reach. Each of techniques, mentioned shortly, can be applied to any of larger search engines such as AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/) and HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com/).

* Organizing Information

Once you locate information, you have to organize it by relevancy. This can be accomplished with various tools, including, Correlate (http://www.correlate.com/). This tool allows you to organize links, text, and documents in a tree format to better view and understand information you've acquired.

--- Various Search Techniques ---

Locating information on Web is not as straightforward as you might think. Of course, you can always do a simple keyword search and locate a few thousand links, of which only 25% to 50% are truly relevant to your specific search. To really dig into Web, you need to understand three search techniques explained below. To present valid examples, following explanations use techniques for searching potential candidates and resumes on Web.

* Flip Search

Flip Search locates items by link association. For instance, instead of searching for potential candidate pages based on specific keywords, Flip Search returns pages that are 'linked to' a target Web site. Links might be personal homepages, colleges, industry organizations, companies, publications, or associations. Each of these 'linkers' represents a potential of providing candidates or related information.

Two of primary search engines that support various Flip Search mechanisms are as follows. Once you understand premise for this search, you can determine specifics for other major search engines on Web.

- AltaVista: On 'Advanced Search' page, in Boolean Query text field, enter 'link:host.com AND homepage AND "java programmer"' and press Enter. With this search string, you're searching for all links that are associated with keywords 'homepage' and '"java programmer".' You can refine search using skills, job titles, and any term that might refine your search target.

- HotBot: On 'Advanced Search' page, enter URL or domain name in Search text field. In Look For drop-down box, select 'links to this URL'. Refine your search by entering skills, job titles, and any term that defines your search target in 'Word Filter' text fields.

Examine results as you work with different searches to see how this search works. It is extremely powerful and can generate numerous relevant links for any given search condition.

* X-Ray Search

Most sites have documents that aren't accessible through links on their site's pages---hidden from view, yet publicly available. The X-Ray technique searches files in a server and lets you view most of these 'hidden' documents.

To try this out, go to AltaVista's 'Advanced Search' page and type 'host:tripod.com' in Boolean Query text field. Like 'link:', 'host:' tells search engine to look for keywords in documents on specified Web site---the Web site for 'tripod.com' domain.

When you click 'Search' button, you could end up with several million documents from your target host. To obtain a more manageable group of results for this example---look for freelance writers. For example, enter following search string into Boolean Query text field: host:tripod.com AND "freelance writing" When I did search, I got about 100 results. Consider that, intuitively, many people name their resume page 'resume.' With this assumption, let's fine-tune search again to look for resumes using following search string: host:tripod.com AND title:resume AND "freelance writing" The word 'title:' tells engine to look for keywords in