Around the World on my Monitor --- stopping in Greece
© Diane Goldberg under the original topic name
I haven't left my desk.
Both of those apparently contradictory statements are true. This week my e-mail box has been so full of notices about travel web sites that there was barely room for the obligatory forty-five daily notices about MLM schemes that brighten my morning.
Many of those notices directed me to great sites full of useful information that I'm eager to share with you. In the weeks to come I'll be taking you down the virtual highway and around the world in 80 mouse clicks - but before we get started I'd like to give you a little information on the way those infamous search engines work. Infoseek lists 2,586,308 sites on travel. Lycos breaks travel down into an array of different divisions. MSN sent me off in a different direction.
I heard on a CNN factoid that search engines cover only about 16% of the available web sites floating in the ether. Over the past week I have re-visited Infoseek countless times and run a search for travel --- different topics come first every few hours.
What determines what a search engine finds?
First of all how you search, the number of key words and the phrases you enter plays a big part. If you are ever up late and over-caffeined try running a search for the same key words in a different sequence. On some search engines, this has a major impact on what you receive.
Sometimes what you get is what everyone else wanted --- the site with the most hits shows up at the top of the list on some search engines. On other engines, its up to that booger J. Random to select what you see.
So how do you find good stuff?
The same way you do in the real world. You shop around, talk to other folks, get advice, and ask locals or at least people who look like they know the area.
In the interest of sharing a bit of the area with you, I'd like to introduce you to a travel web site that is buried beneath many megabytes on most searches.
If you've ever wanted to go to Greece, been and want to return, or just want to look at gorgeous pictures of the Aegean, go to http://www.greeksun.co.uk/ The site belongs to a small independent travel agency in Sevenoaks, Kent, UK that provides five star service for budget travelers via the Internet.
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