Beware this dangerous banking scam - Q&A: Do SSDs need to be defragmented?
Enjoy today's selection of practical, easy-to-follow tech tips.
Rick's Daily Tips Tech Update for Monday, September 13, 2021.
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Topics covered in this issue...
• How to use Google as an advanced 'Site Search' tool for any website
• Q&A: Do SSDs need to be defragmented?
• How to make sure your Amazon purchases are always awesome
• Scam alert: Beware the ‘There’s an issue with your bank account’ text message scam.
• Think Four-Leaf Clovers are rare? Truth be told, they’re actually quite ubiquitous.
• Info about my photo / file recovery service
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Today's Quick Tip....
How to use Google as an advanced 'Site Search' tool for any website
Have you ever noticed how the 'Site Search' tools on many websites do a poor job at actually helping you find the info you're looking for on those sites?
Most sites' native Site Search tools won't find any relevant results if there's even one little typo in your search query. If the term isn't spelled exactly the way it's spelled on the website, good luck finding the page(s) that contain it.
Google on the other hand is quite flexible and forgiving when it comes to search terms. As long as your search query is in the proverbial ball park it will almost always come up with the info you're looking for.
That's why I usually just skip the Site Search tool and head straight to Google when I'm looking for something specific on a website.
It's very easy to do simply by adding the search modifier site: to your search query.
Let's use my blog as an example...
Suppose you're looking for instructions for creating a System Image backup of your computer's hard drive, so you type this into the Search box in the right-hand column of any page:
creatre system image backup
You'll notice there's a typo in the form of the misspelled word creatre. Since that query contains a misspelled word it would result in no matching pages being found for the query even though several pages on that very topic exist on the site.
If you didn't happen to catch the typo you might naturally assume there are no posts on my blog dealing with the task of creating System Image backups and go looking elsewhere.
Now, let's say you type the same exact term into Google - misspelling and all - but use the site: modifier to point to my blog. The contents of the Google search box would look like this:
creatre system image backup site:ricksdailytips.com
Even though there's a typo Google will still easily find and list all the posts dealing with System Image backups that reside on RicksDailyTips.com. They'll even list the posts dealing explicitly with creating those backups at (or near) the top of the list.
But Google goes even further than that. They also list other topics that are closely related to the search query, but a little different. That make it a great tool for expanding your knowledge about a topic of interest.
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The latest from Rick’s Daily Tips...
• Scam alert: Beware the ‘There’s an issue with your bank account’ text message scam
There's a dangerous scam making the rounds that could put your bank account (and all the money that's in it) at great risk. This post explains how to avoid it .
• Q&A: Do SSDs need to be defragmented?
A reader wants to know if solid state drives (SSDs) need to be defragmented the same we have always defragged spinning hard drives. This post has the answer.
• How to make sure your Amazon purchases are always awesome
If you do a lot of shopping online you're probably used to ordering a 'dud' on occasion. This post explains how to make sure virtually all of your Amazon purchases are awesome.
• Click here to see today's 'Picture of the Day' .
Every morning I post a new photo that I find inspiring, intriguing, or just plain beautiful to look at. Jumpstart your day by checking it out.
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Rick's Daily Tips is hosted by InMotion Hosting.
Click here to find out why.
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Rick's Daily Pick...
Every day I feature a tech item that I’ve hand-picked to be among the best of the best.
Click here to see what I’m loving today.
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Today's post from 'My Daily Smile'...
Think Four-Leaf Clovers are rare? Truth be told, they’re actually quite ubiquitous.
Most folks believe four-leaf clovers are almost as rare as hen's teeth, but the truth is they aren't actually rare at all.
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Tech news that caught my eye...
• The first iPhone with 1TB of storage is reportedly coming Tuesday
• Why mounting your TV above the fireplace is a terrible idea
• Three things you can do to protect the content on your blog
• Automation booms after Covid, putting human jobs at risk
• Parallels Desktop 17 will let you run Windows 11 on Macs
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Rick's Photo / File Recovery Service...
Do you have precious photos and/or other irreplaceable files that you'd like to recover from a non-working computer?
Chances are I'll be able to recover them for you, even if the machine won't turn on or start up correctly.
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Thanks so much, and have an amazing day.
Your tech buddy,
Rick Rouse