I recently moved into a new home and haven’t had cable television hooked up yet; and you know what I decided?  I’m not going to get it because everything I need is right on the Internet.  Case and point:  One of my favorite shows comes on on Sunday nights.  Thanks go the magic of YouTube, the episode is downloaded within mere minutes of being on the air.  And what’s even better is that there aren’t any commercials in the version that I watch.  I guess the only downside is the fact that you have to have patience to wait a little later to watch it, but its worth it.  I compare it to bargain shopping.  If you wait just long enough, there are fabulous deals to be had!

All of this being said, when it comes down to using the Internet and trying to obtain information, what is it that we look for?  For instance, earlier today, I was trying to find information for research on a topic that I was writing about.  However, when I clicked on the first website that came up, I quickly clicked right off because there was WAY TOO MUCH information being presented to me at one time, in one space.

Think about how big your computer screen is.  Now think about how much information you would ideally like to see on that page.  It’s no wonder people who use computers often have headaches.  Web users use the Internet for a variety of everyday functions such as:

• Watching television shows
• Shopping
• News
• Information

That being said, what we want is very simple- so simple, in fact, that it is downright laughable: easy-to-find, clearly stated information that will help us make a judgment as to whether or not the website is credible or not.  Additionally, most often, I find myself curious to know who the “brains” behind the operation is- you know, the person who is actually running the website.  This simply helps to build trust between me knowing that there is an actual person running things- someone whom I can reach in case I have a question or complaint.  What are some things that you look for on a website?

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Plagiarism.  The dictionary defines it as the use or close imitation of language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.. [source]  But since the inception of the Internet, and more specifically, the emergence of weblogs, there has been an overly generous amount of wiggle room in how people choose (or don’t choose) to refer to things in their writing.

Knowing Better

It’s one thing to read someone else’s blog or to browse through the Internet and see something that you really find compelling and want to write about.  Heck, you may be thinking to yourself, “They say it so much better than I could even begin to, so I’ll just copy exactly what they have and call it a day.”

Wrong.

It still amazes me to come across a piece of information on one site, think to myself that it seems really familiar, and then realize later that the reason for this familiarity was because it was copied verbatim from another site.  It’s not that difficult to reference something.  Even if you’re unsure about the proper way to reference something on the Internet, referencing where you obtained a certain tidbit of information is MUCH better than not mentioning where you received your sudden knowledge.  It makes you look suspicious- like you’re hiding something.

Dealing with Plagiarism

Unfortunately, there are plenty of unscrupulous people out there waiting to bring you down simply because they’re too lazy to write content themselves.  If this is the case, there are a couple of things you can do:

• Examine the content of what you have written and compare it word-by-word with the content in question.
• Send a non-threatening email, politely asking the blogger or other culprit to kindly remove the article in question from their web site.
• Conduct a “WhoIs” lookup based on the web domain name in order to find the registrar and/or name of the web hosting company so that a formal complaint about copied content can be wagered.

Have any other advice, stories or tips about plagiarism?  We’d love to hear them!

Who 

According to Google Blogoscoped, the following are 5 common web misunderstandings.  To see the full article, click here.

Misunderstanding #1: We Need Separate Print Pages- This idea fails because bloggers link to print pages due to how much easier they are to read.  The right way to go about doing this is to create a separate style sheet for medium print, and if the browser does it correctly, it will display a print preview.

Misunderstanding #2: We Need an Alternative Mobile Web.. WML, the WAP’s Wireless Markup Language, is dead today. The fact that the same document can be used in a variety of circumstances, and that the browser simply requests the stylesheet needed – or uses its own, by default – is not an intuitive one to grasp. Most real world objects don’t behave that way, changing their shape and behavior depending on what is needed. So today, you’ll see many companies creating an alternative mobile web when, in fact, it is really not necessary.

Misunderstanding #3: Accessibility Means to Always Use Alt Text- The meaning of alt text serves as a replacement when the HTML image cannot be seen.  Some of the reasons that images may not be accessible include any one of the following: the user is blind, the medium doesn’t support images, the user disabled images on purpose so she can browse on low-bandwidth. However, if the image is only being used to illustrate a point that is later repeated in the text, then there really isn’t a need to use alt text to begin with.

To see more of this article in detail, visit: Blogoscoped.com.

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