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Tom’s Tech Tips

Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: iGoogle™, You Google, We All Google to Improve Our Legal Nurse Consulting Business

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, do you use Google® to search on a regular (or exclusive) basis? If you’re like me, you’re tired of seeing only 10 results per page. You know, scan the page, click next on the Gooooooooooogle link and then see the next 10 links, repeat – next 10, repeat – next 10, repeat – ad nauseum and if you’re as tired as I am of that basic white Google homepage that offers little in the way of excitement other than an occasional logo change, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Open your Internet Explorer® or Firefox® browser and point it to Google. Next, create an account with Google. It’s quick, easy and it’s free (plus they know all about you anyway – they’re Google after all).

After you create your account, go back to Google and click on iGoogle (in the top right corner of the page). You may not need to, it may take you right to iGoogleTM. When you get to iGoogle (you’ll know) you can select a theme from the “Create your own homepage in under 30 seconds” box. Check a few of the options in the Select Interests box. You can change them later. When you’re done click on “See your page.”

Once you do you’ll see that your new iGoogle homepage has changed considerably. There will be new content like a useless clock, perhaps weather, news from CNN or perhaps your local paper or The New York Times. Ignore these changes for now, we’ve got important work to do.

First, go to the top of your new iGoogle homepage and click on either Preferences or Search Preferences (depending on which one you see). You can then tell Google to display 100 (really 100!) search results per page. You can also tell it to open search results in a new window. This is way cool – your original 100 results remain in place and each link opens in a new window. This way, as you evaluate each result for a case you’re working on for your CLNC® business, you don’t lose the original results and can close each page (or follow its links) as you wish. Save your preferences and go back to iGoogle.

Next, you can select your theme or change your theme. You’ll have pages and pages of customizable themes (header images and page colorations) that will change the way you look at Google forever (or at least until you change themes). Vickie loves trekking and hiking in the mountains so she selected a cool theme that reminds her of the Bhutanese Himalayas. I’ve got an electro-techno-looking theme that charges me up. Some themes are static – the same all the time. Other themes change throughout the day. (Try Pocoyó for a fun, changing theme). You can search the themes by keywords to find one you like.

The Institute has also developed a theme specific to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. You can get the iGoogle CLNC® theme by logging into the NACLNC® Community. Once logged into the Community, click Member Seal and Other Downloads. Select the iGoogle CLNC® theme to easily upload it to your iGoogle homepage.

Now that iGoogle’s looking different, your next step is to address the new content that’s been added to your homepage, courtesy of iGoogle’s Gadget APIs (you’ve learned a new tech word. Now, instead of saying “I can’t go out with you Friday, I’m washing my hair,” you can say “I’m staying in Friday to use Core JavaScript Features and Standard XMLHttpRequest class objects to customize the APIs for my iGoogle homepage.”)

The APIs allow you to drag and drop, add and delete and even resize feeds on your iGoogle homepage. To take advantage of this, the first thing to do is navigate to Vickie’s Blog and click the Subscribe to Feed link at the top left. Now, instead of subscribing by email, select the option under Subscribe Now! to read the blog with your iGoogle or My Yahoo! web-based reader. It’ll then take you back to your iGoogle homepage and should show a box listing the last four headlines. You can then grab the “Vickie’s Blog” box with a left click and drag it anywhere on your page. Use the little icons in the top right of each feed box to delete a feed from your page or to move it around your iGoogle homepage.

Now visit other blogs, news sites (NYTimes.com) or alert sites (FDA.gov) and add their feeds to your homepage. Do a Google search for medical-malpractice news and feeds or other types of cases that interest you to find a wealth of news, facts and opinions. Almost all of these information sources for your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business can be added to your new homepage. On mine I keep the local weather, a stock market ticker, global and local (Houston Chronicle) news and legal feeds. As you learn of new, interesting feeds you can add them, deleting the feeds you no longer need.

I haven’t tried this in IE8 yet, but in my Firefox browser I have multiple tabs that open each time I start Firefox. My homepage and primary display tab hold legal feeds, my secondary is tech feeds (natch!) and the last is news and current events (like movies). Every time I open a browser, I take 2-3 seconds to scan the headlines and then get to searching. One more tip is to use both IE8 and Firefox. I’ve set IE8 to Google, and Firefox to Yahoo!® and I’ve got different content on each browser. My ultimate search destination (legal, news or research) helps me select which browser to open.

This blog has primarily been about Google but, with the exception of themes and colorizations, you can customize Yahoo! just as easily as you can Google.

Remember, use a combination of search engines to get the best results. You’re cheating yourself out of information gathering otherwise. Customizing your homepages will put more information at your fingertips. Just make sure it’s useful.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

One thought on “Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: iGoogle™, You Google, We All Google to Improve Our Legal Nurse Consulting Business

  1. Tom,

    Thanks for the great Google tip. I have followed your suggestions and set up my Google page and it is the best I’ve found to search for those research topics.

    You are just too smart!

    Hope all CLNC® consultants take advantage of this great way to search.

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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.

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