Looking vs. Searching: Advice Star or Stars for Tips?
The Advice Watch by Advice Star has been searching for advice stars (gems of info) since 2009 for a whole smorgasbord of topics that numerous patrons have asked us to be on the lookout for. We’ve learned a few things in the process of the search, and it is our mission to educate the public on searching for real unbiased quality advice and tips. Worse than fake news, fake advice proliferates the web. This is why we’ve e-mailed the majority of our find-results up until recently rather than publishing them. And those pesky advice stars you often see as a rating are a major dilemma in the search for quality advice as we’ll explain further below:
The Two (2) primary factors of Searching for Advice and Tips
• Searching or the Search itself: This deals with the different methods of searching for the advice or tip/s that you’re looking for. In the days of the web, this primarily means search engine working. But believe it – phone calls and literal leg work perhaps to the library can often wield results that otherwise may not have been found; yes even in the information super-era of internet dominance. Contrary to popular belief, not everything can be found on the internet. And no, not every book ever written has been made into an e-book. This being said, the internet with the use of search engines is primary weapon #1 in the search.
• Sifting and Sorting: This is actually the really hard part; the daunting task of discernment. Because there is so much bad, useless, and fake advice – especially on the internet, you’ll have to sift and sort through the conglomeration and magnitude of what is essentially an assaulting information overload… and at the top of search results is often – just like fake news, where you’ll find fake and bad advice, often because it’s popular… which leads us back to the stars. Yes those stars you often see as a rating whenever someone posts an advice tip on sites like Yahoo Answers. People often star those responses because they sound good in theory, are witty or funny, or seem to be “the best answer.” But the people who asked the question, or those searching for the same or similar advice more often take the number of advice stars to heart as meaning “the best advice.” And it’s simply not by any means necessarily the best or even good advice whatsoever.
Advice Star Technique: Best Use of Search Engines for Advice Tip Searching
Important and Conjunctionally:
These search results bringing back bad and/or substandard advice are nonetheless often useful if you know how to spot and use them. For example, in the search for sound proofing advice, you might find where someone advised to use egg cartons. After intuitively or otherwise somehow knowing that this is bad advice, such piece can serve as a clue toward sideline search stringing. What’s that? Sideline search stringing is how you often find information that the real experts don’t want to share. So for example, if you searched for “how to soundproof [something]” and then went on to search a popular myth-tip of “using egg cartons,” you might find a somewhat private forum (at least one that’s not advertised or search optimized because they don’t particularly want to be found by the general public) wherein acoustical engineers are discussing and making fun of those using egg cartons for such. From there, you could potentially find other categories or clues as to what they may really do for those efforts.
Searching for Quality Advice and Tips
This article is among the central and most important of all articles from the Advice Star Radar because it is at the core of what AW is all about. Like all Advice Star articles, it is constantly updating and evolving as new information, experiences, sources, and apps arise to assist in the search for quality advice, guidance, and informative tips. The information you seek is almost guaranteed to be out there. But in the art and science of seeking qualified and truthful information you will invariably be confronted with these hurdles:
• Biased interjections
• Sales ploys
• Emotional leads
• Unqualified coaches
• Non-truths
• Lies (Yes there’s a difference)
• And worst of all: The Deadly “Half-Truths”
The internet is undoubtedly the primary powerhouse weapon of information. But like everything else so big and powerful, it brings both a blessing and a curse. This influx overload of information causes a mess that must be sifting through and organized. Unfortunately, most people don’t bother with such and just run with the first seemingly intelligent info they come across.
The Techniques
Since this article is expected to be updated frequently and perhaps with evolving presentations, it will be presented as a series of notes and perspectives. Feel free to provide your perspective or any experiences you’ve had in your search for advice, tips, or other information.
Perspectives on Searching for Advice
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