Research This - Blog Post Three

Internet researching is one of the most powerful tools at our fingertips. With this power comes the need to have researching skills. With a few basic tips, we can be more effective researchers.

For this week's assignment, I chose "Search Skills." The textbook outlined four research questions, listed below:

(1) What is an open source FTP application that has versions for both Windows and Mac? 

(2) Other than TurboTax, what are two examples of online tax preparation software? 

(3) Find reviews comparing Edge, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox browsers. 

(4) What are the more popular calendar management and task management apps on the Apple App Store or Google Play?

For each, I put the knowledge gained in this chapter to the test.

1) For discovering an open source FTP application that runs on both Windows and Mac, I used the following search criteria: windows +ftp +open source +mac

See the search in action.

Filezilla is a client that reaches multiple OS platforms. It can be used on Windows, Mac, and Linux. 

2) Other examples of tax preparation software lead me to using the following query: Online tax software -TurboTax

See the search in action.

Tax Slayer appears to be one of the cheapest options for online tax filing. 

3) I personally use Chrome and have done so for many years, but if the mood struck me to part ways with Chrome, I would search using the following string: reviews comparing (Edge and Chrome and Safari and Firefox)

See the search in action.

The first result that popped up in the search return agreed with my preference for Chrome, but this was merely bias confirmation. Digital Trends referred to Chrome as the "gold standard." Get Chrome

4) It doesn't get much better than Google's calendar app or does it? To find out, I used the following search pattern: most popular apps (Apple App Store or Google Play) +calendar +task +management

See the search in action.

For calendars, I didn't find anything new that I didn't already know. See a list of the most popular calendar apps. Google calendar is very robust and feature rich. For a To Do list, I don't usually utilize an app. See a list of the most popular To Do list apps. I use the Notes app, that comes automatically with Apple products. I have dipped my toe in the water of Todoist, which seems to be an excellent choice for those individuals that need a more structured To Do list.