I Found It On The 'Net

Isn't the Internet great?

In today's automotive repair businesses, we are always looking for a better way to access the online information we need to make our jobs go smoother and to save time.

Most shops already subscribe to online repair manuals, but what if what you're looking for isn't in a manual? 

Ultimately, we jump directly to search engines like Google and others in hopes that the answer shows up quickly so we can get on with the job at hand.

Maybe, you were not lucky enough to find what you were looking for.

What if;

• you didn't use the right search words
• the info could be in one of the next 20-50 pages of search results
• the information wasn't meant to be found by public search engines
• the information just doesn't exist

Sound familiar?

Okay, you were lucky. You found what you were looking for and that's great. You can now get on with your day.

But, wait a minute.

What do you do with that web page?

Do you save it to your 'Favorites' or 'Bookmarks' list in case you need it again or do you close it off because you think you can find it again later?

Have you tried looking for it again? If so, you probably found that your repeated search generated different results which now gets you a little 'miffed'. Sorry, that's just the way search engines function when they are dealing with millions of web pages fighting to get on the first page results.

Okay, maybe you’ve saved it in your ‘Bookmarks’.

Well, I don’t know about you, but my personal ‘Bookmarks’ section is a mess so I can just imagine what yours looks like on the shop computer.

Here are a couple of tips about public search engines.

1. They are public. That means every page posted on the open internet is open for public viewing.
2. Most of it has been optimized. You may have heard of the term ‘Search Engine Optimization’ (SEO). That means that the publisher has paid well to have their pages optimized to show up on the first pages of a search result.

All this may be just fine ………if you are ‘surfing the net’, but it’s really not that great for a busy automotive business environment where time is definitely money.

It's time for a change.

The Link Library...And More

Here's a solution; catalogue the automotive industry.

No, I’m not trying to be funny because it's being done and updated every day.

When you separate our industry from the millions of other web sites on the open internet, the numbers become manageable. This means all websites, related to our industry, can now be logically catalogued in a variety of classifications for simple and quick retrieval. You will know exactly where it is the next time you need it without taking a chance on the open internet.

That, by itself, will save you shop time.

This is so exciting, I just had to commission a commercial to help explain it. Check it out. I'm really proud of it.

But wait.

We know the Internet is the only medium that can transmit the resources we need. But for many of our suppliers, the open and public internet is a choice being avoided by those who have the information that is slated specifically for us in the commercial side of this business and not for general consumer. Personally, I get really guarded when I see trade secrets and technical training, I worked hard for, being available to just anybody with an internet connection.  It’s just wrong.

Then I realized they didn’t have much choice.

If they need to use the internet to transmit the data, it has to be found and that means SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and all they can do is hope we’re the ones who are looking for it. The other option is to NOT to apply SEO and find some other way to get the information to us.

They now have another option; Store and share the resource links in a password protected industry resource center, available only to industry stakeholders.

They no longer need to optimize their pages for public search engines because all we need is for them to supply us with the web address to the data.

We will catalogue it and have it freely available to all registered members of this industry, especially in this region of British Columbia.

That will really open the doors to more resources.

But we we cannot stop there.

For this to be a really successful endeavor, we need your help.

Let's say you found something on the net (industry related, of course) that you found valuable or interesting enough to save it in your Bookmarks or Favorites.

But there are issues you may be aware of;

1. Unless you know and have taken the time to structure your favorites or bookmarks, finding that piece of information again can be time consuming
2. Unless your shop's computors are on a central server system, these saved files can only be accessed on the computor they were savevd on.
3. If you change browsers without migrating data from the old one, these files are gone.
4. If (heaven forbid) your computor or hard drive crashes, these files are gone.

Here's the solution. Send the links to ASBN and we'll sort and catalog them and add them to the libraries.

This is a win-win scenario.

1. They will be stored on a secure server
2. They can be accessed by any ASBN member with access to the net
3. We will let you know what category or multiple categories your links are stored in and so they can be found quickly

How?

On every data page there is a BLUE BUTTON on the right side of the page 'Add Your Links'. Click on it, copy the address from the web page or the saved file in you favories and paste it in the body of the form. Add your email address and click SEND. That's it!

Not only will your golden nuggets of information be saved but you will be sharing them with your proffessional network.

The goal is to change the slogan from 'I found it on the net' to;

I Found It On ASBN