I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous to most of you, but I
have to ask. How are you supposed to navigate Microsoft's web site? I try
going to Microsoft.com and using their search feature as if I'm Googling and
quite frankly if Microsoft thinks they are going to contend in the search
engine business they better start working harder.

From the main search bar I can use quotes, but and subsequent searches using
quotes will fail every time. Remove the quotes from the second search and
all sorts of stuff pops up, but hardly any of it specific to my search.

So back to the question, how do most of you navigate it? Do you bookmark
into specific sections? Navigate through the side panes? It drives me nuts
to have to go to the Microsoft site because its unbearable to find anything
there. I mean, its all there, but how on earth you find it is beyond me....

This all stems from looking for information on how to add a member server
using best practices. I loaded up a test server yesterday and its spewing
all sorts of 'already exists on the network' errors, service loading
failures, etc.

Thanks for your input!

Re: Where to get information. by Dave

Dave
Tue May 25 11:46:18 CDT 2004

I definitely see your point - I've had trouble locating articles on the web
site with a printed copy in front of me (unsuccessfully trying to locate a
whitepaper by searching its exact title).

Here's what I do: searching for product info, I try
www.microsoft.com/<productname>. This works 99% of the time. For support,
I search at support.microsoft.com, where you'll get better results than
doing a general search from elsewhere on the site. And for SBS-related
info, I start at either http://www.microsoft.com/sbserver/ (SBS 2K) or
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx (2K3).

My first place to search for technical info is on TechNet - the subscription
CD, not the web site. I'm not sure why, but I almost always get better
results searching the copy installed on my workstation than I do the support
web site, even though a substantial amount of the content is the same.


"IBC" <spamityspam@spam.spam> wrote in message
news:OiONJemQEHA.3524@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous to most of you, but I
> have to ask. How are you supposed to navigate Microsoft's web site? I try
> going to Microsoft.com and using their search feature as if I'm Googling
> and
> quite frankly if Microsoft thinks they are going to contend in the search
> engine business they better start working harder.
>
> From the main search bar I can use quotes, but and subsequent searches
> using
> quotes will fail every time. Remove the quotes from the second search and
> all sorts of stuff pops up, but hardly any of it specific to my search.
>
> So back to the question, how do most of you navigate it? Do you bookmark
> into specific sections? Navigate through the side panes? It drives me nuts
> to have to go to the Microsoft site because its unbearable to find
> anything
> there. I mean, its all there, but how on earth you find it is beyond
> me....
>
> This all stems from looking for information on how to add a member server
> using best practices. I loaded up a test server yesterday and its spewing
> all sorts of 'already exists on the network' errors, service loading
> failures, etc.
>
> Thanks for your input!
>
>



Re: Where to get information. by IBC

IBC
Tue May 25 12:23:42 CDT 2004

Thanks Dave, I'll start looking in those places.

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@NOSPAM.frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:#RO0NfnQEHA.2704@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> I definitely see your point - I've had trouble locating articles on the
web
> site with a printed copy in front of me (unsuccessfully trying to locate a
> whitepaper by searching its exact title).
>
> Here's what I do: searching for product info, I try
> www.microsoft.com/<productname>. This works 99% of the time. For
support,
> I search at support.microsoft.com, where you'll get better results than
> doing a general search from elsewhere on the site. And for SBS-related
> info, I start at either http://www.microsoft.com/sbserver/ (SBS 2K) or
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx (2K3).
>
> My first place to search for technical info is on TechNet - the
subscription
> CD, not the web site. I'm not sure why, but I almost always get better
> results searching the copy installed on my workstation than I do the
support
> web site, even though a substantial amount of the content is the same.
>
>
> "IBC" <spamityspam@spam.spam> wrote in message
> news:OiONJemQEHA.3524@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> >I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous to most of you, but I
> > have to ask. How are you supposed to navigate Microsoft's web site? I
try
> > going to Microsoft.com and using their search feature as if I'm Googling
> > and
> > quite frankly if Microsoft thinks they are going to contend in the
search
> > engine business they better start working harder.
> >
> > From the main search bar I can use quotes, but and subsequent searches
> > using
> > quotes will fail every time. Remove the quotes from the second search
and
> > all sorts of stuff pops up, but hardly any of it specific to my search.
> >
> > So back to the question, how do most of you navigate it? Do you bookmark
> > into specific sections? Navigate through the side panes? It drives me
nuts
> > to have to go to the Microsoft site because its unbearable to find
> > anything
> > there. I mean, its all there, but how on earth you find it is beyond
> > me....
> >
> > This all stems from looking for information on how to add a member
server
> > using best practices. I loaded up a test server yesterday and its
spewing
> > all sorts of 'already exists on the network' errors, service loading
> > failures, etc.
> >
> > Thanks for your input!
> >
> >
>
>



Re: Where to get information. by Duncan

Duncan
Thu May 27 19:16:15 CDT 2004

In article <OiONJemQEHA.3524@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>,
spamityspam@spam.spam says...
> I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous to most of you, but I
> have to ask. How are you supposed to navigate Microsoft's web site? I try
> going to Microsoft.com and using their search feature as if I'm Googling and
> quite frankly if Microsoft thinks they are going to contend in the search
> engine business they better start working harder.
>
> From the main search bar I can use quotes, but and subsequent searches using
> quotes will fail every time. Remove the quotes from the second search and
> all sorts of stuff pops up, but hardly any of it specific to my search.
>
> So back to the question, how do most of you navigate it? Do you bookmark
> into specific sections? Navigate through the side panes? It drives me nuts
> to have to go to the Microsoft site because its unbearable to find anything
> there. I mean, its all there, but how on earth you find it is beyond me....
>
> This all stems from looking for information on how to add a member server
> using best practices. I loaded up a test server yesterday and its spewing
> all sorts of 'already exists on the network' errors, service loading
> failures, etc.
>
> Thanks for your input!

Google - <"search query" site:.microsoft.com>

.. does a better job than searching within MS :)

--
Duncan