Tech Features

Computer and Internet briefs - Sunday Jan. 22

Jan 22, 2006, 18:12 GMT

The Internet is increasingly filled with video footage. The difficulty lies in finding it. That's why search engine giant Google has unveiled Google Video (http://video.google.com). This new addition to Google's portfolio of search tools limits results to video footage. Videos can range in length from just a few seconds to hours, and most of the videos you find are free. 

Folders in Microsoft's Windows Explorer file manager all look alike. That makes distinguishing one folder from another difficult. The Rainbow Folders (http://www.rainbowfolders.aionel.net/) add-on can help. This free utility allows you to change the colour of an icon representing a folder. That way, you can quickly focus on a particular folder when confronted with a screen full of otherwise identical-looking yellow Explorer folder icons.

Use your keyboard's backspace key for more than erasing mistakes in your word processor. In most web browsers, the backspace key takes you to the previous page that you were browsing. Pressing backspace is much faster than taking the time to click the browser's Back button. Press Shift-Backspace to go in the opposite direction. The only time this doesn't work is when a web page drops you automatically into a form field. In such a case, the Backspace key works as it does in a normal word processor.

Want to find a group of people online who share your interests? Big-boards (http://www.big-boards.com) constantly monitors activity at the web's largest online forums, otherwise known as chat sites. Big-boards compiles all types of statistics about the forums it monitors, including which sites have the most activity, the most posts, the most members and more. You'll find links to groups that cater to any taste - and the groups are fully searchable.

Trying to find just the right word? The Yahoo search engine has a built-in thesaurus. To access it, all you need to do is include the word 'synonym,' without the quotation marks, before the word you wish to look up. Click Search, and immediately you'll be presented with links that provide you with synonyms for the word you typed. Google has a similar feature, but for definitions. Just type a word in the search field, and click the Definition link at the top right of the search results.