What tips would you give Seniors about searching the Internet?

For senior newbies on the internet, I like to make it as simple as possible

1 - Simplify the sidebar with just a few large-size icons that they can click to easily access

MAIL - opens their mail program (have it set up to their account @ yahoo.com, google.com, etc)

BROWSER - opens their homepage. On Yahoo, this can be set up to include local and other cities (where kids, grandkids are) weather as well as stocks they may be interested in, news, etc.

GOOGLE (or other search engine) - pops open search engine page of choice

FACEBOOK - opens Facebook so they can keep up with family and friends (assist them in setting up teir account if necessary)

WEBMD (or other health site) - opens this site for seniors who are interested in researching health matters

2 - Enlarge print on the page by holding down "command" then pressing "+"

3 - Scroll up and down the page with arrow keys OR mouse OR slider bars on page windows

4 - Searching for Info and websites -

- You can either type the item your searching for into the google search bar OR if it's a company or product, try just typing the name followed by ".com" into the address bar and it will lead you to the company. It's no longer necessary to preface with "http://www."/ or even just "www.".

Example: "sony.com", "wendys.com", "nintendo.com". etc. will get you to the company sites.

- You can search ANYTHING. If you're wondering what to get your 8 year old grandson for a present, type "gifts for 8 year old boy" and get results.

- You can even find the closest bank, ATM, restaurant/chain by going to Google Maps and typing "Bank of America ATM near [your zip code]" or "Wendy's near [your zip code]". This is handy when traveling, for the mobile seniors with laptops or comp access on the road.

Hope these help!

- I told my grandma about URLs (the http://yahoo.com/ at the top of the screen)

- And then I told her how to do Google Search.

- The other less common thing I told was that to Zoom into something on the screen, hold the CTRL key and and roll the scroller on the mouse UP. If your mouse doesn't have the scroller in the middle, it won't work though. *cry*

To make it REALLY simple, I basically just told her if she wanted to know how to do something on the internet, type it into the Google search bar because she probably won't remember if I told her. Lol.

Amazingly, my grandma is pretty good at using the internet. That's all anyone really needs to know.

I sat in front of my first computer and didn't know how to switch it OFF.

I had to ask the kid next door to show me how.

The first advice I would give Seniors is be careful with what you open and NEVER give out your details online.

Attend a local computer course devised for `Silver Surfers'.

tell them about the address bar

tell them to search for things on www.google.com

tell them to remember addresses and type in the address or put the address to favorites rather than doing a search again at a later date

tell them about email @yahoo @gmail or @hotmail

tell them about facebook so they can talk to their family

warn them about viruses and scams and tell them how to close a window properly if a popup appears

(press Alt and F4 not click the 'close' button on the pop up)

Google

Thanks to your other answerers I've already learned some things I didn't know, so thanks for asking the question, I bet the answers will help others like me.

If I was to try and help someone who really didn't know about computers, I'd stay with them all the time, until they felt confident enough to tackle it on their own.

I remember sitting in front of my first one, and thinking 'Now what?' after it had booted up!

Some good tips already here, but one that comes to mind is to never click on a link in an email from anybody you don't know.

First, put google on your favorties list. I'd teach them how to put things on their favorties list and why.

Then how to think of things to type into google, and how to choose which choice to check out.

I they can't think of anything I'd ask them about their life, traveling, hobbies, likes dislikes, and help them figure out what they'd enjoy looking up.

Teach them about google street veiw. So fun to type in addresses of your children/relatives and see if you can see their house.

Teach them about google earth! Amen! You can go all over the world!

Show them yahoo questions and asnwers. Fun to have someone that's interested in what you know!

Show them how to set up a free email account at Yahoo or Hotmail or Gmail. Yahoo is the easiest.

Help them think of an easy to remember id and password and show them about documents.

Show them how to type up lists, passowrds to remmeber, familys names and birthdays, on documents and them make sure they know how to find the documents again.

show them flash drives and how to put everything on their computer on the flash drive so it won't be lost. Maybe even have two flash drives. One that you keep with you, and one in a safety deposit box for family after you're gone.

If they have records they like, show them how to put their records on the computer as mp3s, or on cd's.

Show them Delphi and how they can chat with ppl their own age all over the world for free.

arggggggggggg! I can't stop! Is this 'wittnessing' for computers?