Narrowing Google searches

In his January 2020 “Boarding Pass” column, ITN’s editor described how a subscriber’s Google search had led him to unofficial websites where he would have spent more money than necessary for a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority pass, or ETA (pgs. 55-57).

The editor’s advice on how to avoid unofficial websites was good. One of the things he mentioned was that when doing a Google search, paid ads are listed at the top of the results.

I did the same search for “New Zealand ETA” that the editor did, and among the results was “www.newzealandetavisa.com.” Something worth pointing out is that next to that search result’s website address, as well as the next couple, was the word “Ad.”

Seeing that word next to a search result leads to my automatically skipping that website and any others tagged with that word. Noticing this won’t weed out all irrelevant search results, but it can cut the number of them down.

This applies to all types of searches, not just searches for travel document information.

SARAH BROWN

Old Fort, NC