Almost every time we get a few new members on the Magic Café, the inevitable posts about "What is the best cups and balls routine?" or "What is the best ACR?" or we get posts like "How can I find (insert name here)'s web site."

Well, what if there was a piece of software that would allow you to find ANYTHING that had ever been posted on the Magic Café? Or one that would allow you to find someone's web site? Wouldn't that be really neat? Well, guess what! We have one. It's called a "Search Engine."

If you want to find everything posted about cups, go up to the sets of words in the brackets up in the right hand corner of the screen. In the third line, on the left end, you will see the word [Search]. If you click on that, you will find a place to search for everything ever posted here about cups. You can even use two terms like cups, balls or a phrase like cups and balls. Okay, I know most of you know this, but there are some that don't.

Most of you here have at least HEARD of Google. But there are some that I am absolutely certain have never used it. A fellow on another forum wanted to know where to find Tally-Ho playing cards. I found a number of locations within 15 seconds. I'm afraid my post to him was not very nice.

Anyway, try the search engines before you post. Then ask questions.

Here's a "search engine" that most people don't know about. Have you ever wanted to contact someone who owned an internet shop, but couldn't find them? Did their contact page have a post office box and nothing more? Did you place a $2500 order two months ago, and can't find out where they are located? Well, now that you know it wasn't a brilliant idea to do that, here's one way to find them.

Go to Whois.com and do a search for them. Just enter the name of the web site. When you do, you will get a message that says that the name is taken, but there will also be an option to do a "whois" search on that second page. Enter the name of the web site, includimg the TLD "com, org, net, whatever." You will get a window that tells you who the registrant is and what their address and phone number are.

Crooks hate that.