Thanks for your answer. The other way members could share a list of the URL's that they have visited, is by emailing the latest list to every member on the team. That is the way I have described it below. Whatever way it is done, it would still need some way to search to see if the URL has been searched before. Do you think uploading the links to a site would have an advantage?
Unless there is software to do this automatically, it seems for a group to do a search, a member doing the search would probably have to do the following.
Each member of the team would check their email to see if other members on the team emailed them a list of the URL's they have visited. If another member emailed them their list the member would combine the URL lists to form a "total URL list". In this example I am assuming the "total URL list" is just like a text or doc file.
After the member did that, they would go to the search engine and bring up the targeted sites. If the description of a site looks as though it may contain what we are searching for, the member would have to copy the URL or web address of the site link displayed in the search engine. Then they would have to open the "total URL list" page and paste the URL address or the domain into the search facility that is used to find text on that page. For example in Microsoft Word they would have to go Edit, Find and the press the keys Ctrl + V to paste. If the URL is not already on the page, the member would past the URL into their URL list and click on the link in the search engine and visit the site.
It would need to be remembered that many people with websites would own their own domain name, and have many different pages that would each appear in the search engines, and each of them would belong to the one webmaster. In this case it would be best if only one member in the team went to this domain once to contact the webmaster.
On the other hand, many domains are shared by many people. For example, many people host sites on their Internet service provider's site or on free sites such as Geocities or Anglefire..
In the first case, where the domain is owned by the webmaster, it would be best if members only pasted the domain name into the text search facility of the "total URL list".
However, in sites that share a domain name it may be best to include more of the URL or the full URL in the text search facility. If you use the text search facility to search the list for the full URL, it would not pick up another URL on the same domain. If this method was used for the first case where the domain is only owned by the webmaster, members in our team would go to different pages of the same webmasters site. This would cause unwanted duplication and mean the webmaster of the site could be emailed several times.
Sometimes it would be best to search the "total URL list" for the domain name only and other times it would be best to search for the full URL. People would need to recognize the difference between the two above cases.
It would also pay for each member to copy the email address on the page they visited in their web search and paste it into another list of email addresses. As with the URL's each member of the team would need to email the other members of the team a list of the email addresses they have contacted. Each member would combine the email lists to form a "total email list". However, before they do paste the email address they found in the email list or contact the email address, each member should paste the email address into the text search facility of the file containing the "total email list". Then they would run the search to ensure the email address is not already there. If it is there, the email address would not be added or contacted.
Do you think there is much chance that any software would save a manual process of using the text search facility to search the list of URL's or email addresses to confirm they are not already listed?
If you have any suggestions on an easier way to do this, please let me know.
Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.
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Followup To
Question -
Hi Scott
Do you know a solution to these 2 problems? Overcoming them would help a lot of people find what they need in web searches. I am using Internet Explorer 5 on Windows 2000.
PROBLEM 1
Mostly links change color to purple when they are visited in search engines.
I used to think that the links were purple because they were stored in the history. However, I have several URL's in my history, but the links are no longer purple, even though the exact URL's are the same. Do you know why this is?
Is there a way, or is there any software that would maintain the links in the color they change to after visiting them for an indefinite period? For example, it would be good if those links that change from blue to purple remained purple indefinitely.
PROBLEM 2
I would like to get a team of people to do a search for something that would take one person too much time. The problem is different members of the team would go to the same websites, and contact the same people, asking the same questions. This would waste time and annoy people.
A solution could be if each member of the team emailed the other members a list of the URL's they have visited, perhaps in a history file. Each member would combine the URL lists to form a "total URL list". It would be good if each member of the team had software to color the links on their webpages a different color if they are in the "total URL list". Then, the blue links would indicate sites nobody in the team have been to, and purple links would indicates sites that have been visited by someone in the team. I am not sure if there is a way to install and combine the history folders of the different members of the team.
Do you know an easy way to do this or any software that could help?
I have written to google.com and asked them if there was a way to search so the search would only bring up URL's with a certain letter. But they said they did not have this feature yet. The project could involve one person doing a search on all the URL's beginning with "A" and another person would do all the URL's beginning with "B". Others would do other letters. This would save overlap or two people in the team searching on the same URL addresses. It would also save similar emails being sent to the same webmasters asking the same thing, if people in the team were writing letters.
Do you have any suggestions on the easiest way to do this?
Also I value your opinion on my below sites and am wondering if you want to swap links
I have many websites linked to http://www.advantagein.com/overview.htm .
There may be more different topics than you are aware of. They contain something for everyone and suppressed information that is rarely seen. I am trying to form a network that can help people like you. What do you think of them?
Your help is appreciated
Regards Richard.
Answer -
Problem 1 - Windows maintains a history of sites you visit and links followed. Frankly I'm not sure where that information is specifically stored. Whether its in the History folder, the Registry and/or in Temp Internet folders. But its not stored permanently. You can adjust the length of time the History is maintained but its still not stored permenantly. I don't know of any software that does this. If you want to save a link that you may want to go back to, that's what Favorites are for.
Problem 2 - I can think of a solution to this that would be fairly simple. Create a links page on a WEB server. members of the team would have access to add URLs to the page as they visit them.
Hope this helps,
Scott<>
Answer First, posting it on a WEB page would make e-mailing unnecessary. At most, you might just need to send an e-mail that URLs have been added, but no need to actually send them.
Second, I don't know of any software that would automate this for you, but I would assume that it could be automated. However, the coding is out of my league.
Third, At minimum you could have the page setup so that users can mark a URL as having been checked. One possible way would be using Data Access Pages connectted to a database. I would see 2 pages, one to enter data, another to view URLs and check off the ones visited. This would not be difficult to create and it might be possible to automate the checkoff process.
Much of what you talk about is procedural and needs to be an internal decision as to how you want the work to flow.
