TheCleaners.net

There is nothing more frustrating than looking all over the place for something and not being able to find it -- whether it's your keys, the handset for your telephone, your glasses.... The birth of the internet took that frustration level to a whole new plateau. Perhaps it's because the worldwide web promises so much that we feel so inadequate when faced with its complexity.

This week, we'll take a journey of discovery together to see if we can't all get a better handle on this slippery repository of knowledge, information and fun..

Naturally, while we were experimenting, we came across a few sites that will help you with your garment care needs, so we'll let you cheat and look at our homework Just see the section near the end of the newsletter.

See you soon!
Jim Nixon
The Cleaners

Mr. Nixon:
What happened to your weekly newsletters? Am I still on your mailing list?
Monica from Windsor

Hi Monica:
Thanks for the note. You can blame it on writer's block and a week in Vail, but we're back this week.
Jim Nixon

Bundle Up Coupon!

Admit it, you like getting out the sweaters and heavier items in your wardrobe at the end of summer. It's like discovering a whole new section of your closet! But sometimes those sweaters have a packed-away odor, even though you cleaned them before storing them (you DID clean them, right?) Have $10 in regular drycleaning done and we'll do a sweater at no charge.
(Include first page of this e-mail with your order. Offer expires 10/30/04. Cannot be combined with other offers.)

Riding the Mouse

There's a TV commercial that tries to demonstrate how fast a particular computer is or something like that, and the man in the commercial tells his wife in an awed voice, "I finished the Internet!" No matter how fast your computer or connection is, you'll never get to see it all. There are already billions of pagesposted to the internet and millions more are created every day.

Numbers like that can be intimidating when you are trying to find out something and turn to your computer for help. The fact is, however, that the internet (for all its faults and misinformation) is still the most current source of information available to you. Books in libraries generally take at least 18 months just going through the publication process, so when you look at the copyright date you can roll it back by roughly two years. In today's information environment, information that old is not just stale -- it's fossilized!

Smart Searching

The key to finding what you want on the internet is to select your search engine carefully and then be as specific as you can.

• There are lots of search engines, so experiment with them to see what works best for you. Compare by running the same search on a couple of different ones and see with gives better results. Here are a few you can try:
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Ask Jeeves
  • About
  • Dogpile *
  • Metacrawler *
  • Momma *

* These are "metasearch" engines -- they search several other search engines at a time, but may bog down and won't offer more than 50 results from any one of the several they search (whereas a search of a single engine may net tens of thousands of results.)

• Be specific. If you're trying to research a particular digital camera, for instance, don't put in "digital camera" into the search window. You'll have literally millions of results! If you know the brand and model number, put that in -- "Olympus E10". If you're looking for the best price on inkjet cartridges, put in the actual part number -- "Epson SO20189".
• Think creatively. If what you are looking forhas some quirky word or phrase in it, that's what you go after. Don't search for "boots", search for "lace-up ladies boots" if that's what you want. Under "boots" you'd get everything from firefighting gear to computers (which "boot" when they start.) Adding the qualifiers "lace-up"and "ladies" helps a lot!
• Understand how the search engines work. Most of the popular engines give you the results in order of popularity, not necessarily relevance. If you decide to look up your family tree and put in "genealogy" into the search window in Google, for instance, you'll discover you've got 12,900,000 resulting pages. The first ones on the list will be the ones most visited -- but not necessarily the ones that will help you the most. Don't just look at the first screen or two of results. Go through several, or skip to "page 10" of the results list and see what you find. You may find a gem of a site you'd miss otherwise.
• Try the name first. Say you want to find information about a particular company, or want to find their online catalogue. Where to start? Why not just try their name -- www.companyname.com. Often, it will take you right to their site, or they will have purchased that particular address and set it up to direct you to their actual page (which might be www.compname.com, etc.) Once you've found it, bookmark it for future reference.

• For a great resource on how search engines work, comparisons of them, how to make them work better for you and much more, check out Search Engine Showdown -- The User's Guide.

What's a Boolean?

If you spend any time at all on the internet, you'll come across references to Boolean logic in relation to search engines. George Boole (1815-1864) was an Irish mathematician who recognized a fundamental point about logic in selecting things. It all boiled down to three simple words: AND, OR, NOT.

This Boolean logic has been transferred to the internet searching, and different search engines use it to varying degrees. The best ones let you make use of symbols or words that clarify your search. For instance:

• peanut butter AND jelly
• peanut butter OR jelly
• peanut butter NOT jelly

These three searches will net very different results.

• The first search will pull in only pages that mention both peanut butter and jelly.
• The second search will gather all pages mentioning peanut butter, all pages that mention jelly, and (of course) all pages that mention both.
• The third search will only bring up pages mentioning peanut butter, and not mentioning jelly.

Sometimes you have to click on the "Advanced search" button in order to access boolean features, but it's worth checking out.

• Read more about Boolean logic from the University at Albany.

Doing Our Homework

We told you we'd run some searches to find sites to help you with garment care, and here's the crib sheet. Check out these sites and don't be afraid to run some searches of your own. You'll notice a lot of them refer to care labels (surprise, surprise). That's because the key to garment care is right there at the back of your neck.

• Excellent guide to care labels, care symbols and more.
• That pesky "Dry Clean Only" label -- and what's behind it.
• Plain English explanations of many of the care label statements you may come across.
• The International Fabricare Institute's consumer Q/A.
• Care of outerwear garments.
• Care of Baby clothes.
• Care of Cashmere and Camel Hair.
• Care of Silk.
• Buying clothing with future care in mind.
• How some labels turn customers off -- or to other brands.
• How to choose a high-quality garment.
• Check the website of the designer whose label is in your favorite outfit -- they often have consumer care instructions and tips available online.

Happy Mousing Around!