Getting valid web searches and avoiding use of "Forums" that contaminate
Google web searches by including newsgroups postings.

Newsgroups postings can be searched using Google Groups, and such
postings should NOT show up on a typical web search. For more
information on (Excel) Newsgroups see
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm

WEB SEARCHES:
Using a Google web search is about the usual way you can get to web
sites with Excel information. There are other search engines available
but Google is the most popular, and probably still has the most links.

The problem with web searches is the contamination from spammy sites.
Just like there are many degrees of spam the same can be said of
spammy sites, so most of what you are seeing fits under the radar
of measurements. Just like off topic posts to multiple newsgroups
is frequently off the radar of spam measurements, even though that
was the original definition of spam. Google and others will usually
catch spam directed to thousands of servers/newsgroups as you
can somewhat see in your ISPs spam folders.

But the sites I am saying that contaminate the Google web search
results are those that attract people to post questions through their site
when in fact all they are doing is passing the postings on to actual
newsgroups, and then those plus all responses end up on their
website to attract more users doing web searches.

One way to eliminate a lot of such webpages is to include negatives
on a web search -htm -site:excelforum.com -site:exceltips.com
unfortunately you would need over eighty such items that are even more
generic than those. And Google only allows you about 30 items.
Along these lines are 3 google search forms on my search.htm page.

A better way is to use Firefox and install "Customize Google" and create
your filter of sites you do not want to visit. Unfortunately for my own filter, it
is only for Excel and as you can only have one filter, so I would have to turn
off the filter for searches when I want to see forums for applications that
don't make much use of newsgroups (i.e. help with Firefox).

Sites that I filter out are those that regurgitate newsgroup postings, and sites that
are more interested in advertising than in providing free useful Excel information.
More information on my Firefox page in this section (has links, including to my filter)
Note my filtering works for me, others may want to be more specific in their choices.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firef...ustomizegoogle

The quickest way for many would be to search only certain websites
for Excel information -- these would be fairly much weighted toward
present and past Excel MVPs which is not a bad place to start but
for specialized material for a specific vocations you could be missing
lot of really valuable information. See Ron de Bruin's site
http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm for Google Search Excel Add-in

By posting your own questions directly to a newsgroup instead of
through a web site, you are not enabling such sites. Exceptions
of web pages that will not add to the problem are Google Groups and
Microsoft Communities (discussions), that specifically exclude themselves
from Google web searches.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm

If you are not behind a firewall you can post directly to a newsgroup
with Outlook Express, or through your browser, paste the following
into your browser's address bar (location bar)
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...excel.newusers

ISPs used to help you with newsgroups, that seems to be pretty
much a thing of the past.

For tips on using Outlook Express see
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/oe/oe6.htm


footnote:
This was getting much too specific about working with newsgroups so started
this post more or less as a continuation from:
http://groups.google.com/groups?thre...GP04.phx .gbl

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm


--
---
HTH, (Hope This Helps)
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

And Google only allows you about 30 items.

Meant to look that up before actually posting
-- the limit is actually 32 items in a Google search