how I google


here are some examples of how I google for animanga info, while
probably common knowledges, they may be helpful for some people.

yes, knowing Japanese to do a direct google search is the quickest and
best way to go, but even w/ limited Japanese knowledge you can still
conduct an effective search,

example 1, Zipang US license

knowing animeondvd has a forum that talk about licensing, I just google
both Zipang and animeondvd together, (did not even use advance search
to limit fields.) then simply sorted through the articles looking only
for forum thread.

search time, less than 1 min.

example 2. Maxion status

having never read Maxion myself, and the original article does not
provide the link to the author's website, (yes, it would have been
helpful.) meaning there are more works. all search google.

-- input Maxion to find the English name of the author.

-- input English name to find the Japanese name of the author.

sometimes you got lucky and hit wiki or aninfo site that list both
names and save a step.

I am actually familiar w/ this author from casual browsing in
bookstore, (his pen name is somewhat unique.) but would never make the
connection just by looking at his English name.

-- input Japanese name to find the author's official website.

and sometimes you get this info also in a good wiki page and save 2
steps.

btw, you do need a computer that can handle foreign characters, not
necessary operate in/type out Japanese, but to display them in browser
and able to use copy/paste function.

-- input both Maxion and his website addr. to come out the two Maxion
links.

-- since one is obviously gallery, try the other one w/ the google
"translate this article" function.

you may need to have some practice to look through all the gibberish
after literal translation, trying to find keywords for the info you
seek, etc.

search time, less than 5 mins.

example 3, Ikki Tousen manga status

you can go through the same process by going English, then Japanese to
find the website of the publisher, however, since I do follow this one
I already have Comic Gum in my bookmarks, (as other popular
magazines/publishers.) after going there I simply click "This Month's
New Issue" and see on the cover, it is indeed, Ikki Tousen, which mean
I don't even need to look through the index to confirm it is still an
on going series,

search time, less than 1 min

sometimes you would hit title that is not in the current issue, however
that does not mean it has ended, since the author could simply taking a
break, in that case then you need to continue search within that
publisher site for mangaka lineup, or available books for order, or
even next issue preview to see if it is definitely over. or going to
yahoo or amazon Japan to see if the status of that title is "completed"
or not.

example 4. Sakura Diaries ending

google "Sakura Diaries ending" (yes, the exact words as the usenet
title) got me the two links.

search time, less than 1 min.

this one is actually more troublesome because it is hard to separate
the anime and manga pages, additional search w/ words like synopsis did
not get anywhere fast, so I just drop it, since I found the links where
the original poster can ask more questions, even If they are not the
pages w/ answers themselves

extended search time, less than 15 minutes.

the trick of search is to come out good keywords to limit fields so you
don't get a bunch garbages to obscure what you want to find, I seldom
go more than 2 screens, (20 links) before I give up and try a new
search fields,

some useful tools

http://wikipedia.org/

just remember that wiki can be wrong sometimes, as I have personally
seen in a few occasions, but it is a great place to get original
Japanese names, (title, author, publisher.) and sometimes official
websites in external links, and most of the time you can get the info
you want right in the wiki page w/o going to the official pages.

also most of the time there is a corresponding Japanese wiki page, (you
can see it on the left side bar as a link.) sometimes it has more
information than the English page, and you say you can't read Japanese?
save the link and run it through your prefer web engine to translate
it.

http://comipedia.com/

this one is an ambitious project to index all Japanese manga
publishers, and thus a great place to get the official website, even if
sometimes the links would be out of date,

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/
http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/index.html

two western manga sites that I am sorry to say, too out of date to be
any good for anything recent, but for old things they are still
helpful.

most new book/magazine has the artist/publisher/manga website listed,
it would be helpful to bookmark them,

http://www.mangaupdates.com/

click on any title will get you to a page w/ cover scan, publisher, and
title and author name in Japanese, most of the time it would also have
the status (on going, finished, etc.)

last tip: make sure you turn on the display of hi-lighted link, so you
can see the path, while most Japanese websites are in Japanese,
sometimes the actual http path is still in English, so you can see
things such as top, index, profile, CG Gallery, link, news, etc in the
end of path, then you know what those buttons are for.
.