Toolkit Addition

ToolKit: Push Or Pull

Info changes. So do Web sites. So do resumes. So do....

So, do you use a push or a pull technology?

Push will bring you pre-selected "channels" - often news and stock information. That's good for up to date breaking news and noteworthy industry moves like layoffs.

Pull, on the other hand, lets you determine where the information you get delivered to you comes from. For instance, Flashsite (included on the CD) lets you tell it which sites to go to to find updated information.

Both have their place.

If you use push, though, you need to take a few steps to control what's being pushed your way and when it's pushed.

First, program the push client to do it your way. When your channels are downloading, your machine slows down and leaves you with less computing resources. So, conserve energy.

Forget about setting a download schedule. Instead, tell the pusher to just check for updates-on a schedule that makes sense to you. You'll be wasting energy if it updates hourly but you only check it twice a day. So, be realistic. If you need the info in the morning and the afternoon, schedule 2 updates, not full downloads. Then, what'll be pushed your way is just the new information.

If you're using PointCast, perhaps the easiest, most complete and least browser dependent of the pushers, you can schedule your updates quite easily.

• Click "Personalize" in the channel bar.
• Select "Application Settings" and click the Update tab.
• Select your option.

Take care of your hard disk. Each piece of push that comes sits in your hard disk cache. If you're on a news channel with lots of graphics, your space will be consumed rapidly. Either forgo these, increase the size of your cache, or decrease the size of the pusher's cache (which means you won't get as much information all at once). Also, remember to delete the files after you've viewed them

Make sure that the channels you use are optimized for you. For instance, if you have a favorite for economic news, make sure you eliminate the economic section from other pushers.

Again, this is a part of an overall strategy. Using Pointcast, we were aware of the layoffs at Wired relatively early on. Good info to have. But, with Flashsite we monitor those sites that, in our eyes, merit constant watching-even if they're not part of the proprietary channels.

Search Tips

Search Tip: Clarify the Search

If you're looking for resumes and have tried the warehouses, the niches, and the search for resume.html, try another.

Be really clear about just who it is you're looking for. If it's someone who's got gobs of experience, a search of phone directories, by company or division, might help. If it's someone who knows the stuff, but has less experience, troll the universities and colleges.

Control your search rather than letting it control you.

For instance, we decided to look for a COBOL programmer in Massachusetts who also attends college.

In Alta Vista a search for resume.html +.edu +cobol +ma brings up 2700 resumes. All fit the search criteria. Not all are hirable. In fact, at least one of the resumes on the first page is more than 2 years old.

The same search in the advanced search tool adding in the not before 1/Oct/97 date, gives us none--because we forgot to use the correct Boolean operators.

When we changed the query to resume.html &.edu &cobol &ma, we narrowed the field of 2700 to 37. At first glance, though, not all results appeared to be resumes.

A search for the same in Hot Bot, whose super search we think offers a better screening tool than Alta Vista's advanced search, came up with only 2 resumes.

The difference - Alta Vista has a broader database (100 million vs. Hotbot's 80 million). Also Alta Vista returned pages that weren't resumes but that had links to resumes-which basically means more work digging through the results.

The moral? Understand just how the search engine you use works. Refer back to our chart, labeled on the left as #11 under Search Tools. Even more importantly, know what it is you're looking for before you search. Be as focused as you can in the search-you can always return to it and eliminate some of the words.

Also, consider how the page might be designed. There are lots of resumes out there that make use of frames to demonstrate how appropriate HTML can be. Unfortunately, neither Alta Vista nor Hot Bot indexes frames-but Lycos and Infoseek do. However, this also provides a way for you to understand ho well your prospect understands the Web, the search engines, and HTML. Both Alta Vista and Hot Bot will index resumes that refer you or provide a link to a framed resume.

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