Webwatch

Google, possibly the web search engine of choice for most people, is wonderfully efficient at unearthing useful information. But have you ever wondered if there might be something relevant away down there on page 100 of your results? For more effective and efficient searching it's worth looking at some of Google's more advanced features.

Dementia is emerging as a major public health issue with serious implications for social care in the future. According to a report from Alzheimer's Disease International, more than 35 million people worldwide will have dementia in 2010 and that number will nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050.

Getting it Right, Assessments for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Carers and Service Users is a new interactive online learning resource produced by IRISS in conjunction with MECOPP.

It introduces the issues affecting minority ethnic carers and service users with an emphasis on achieving cultural competence within individual practice.

A new managed knowledge network (MKN) from NHS Education Scotland provides access to information and evidence about adult rehabilitation and the management of long term conditions. Rehabilitation in this context is defined as "a process aiming to restore personal autonomy to those aspects of daily life considered most relevant by service users, and their carers."

As readers of this column will know, we enthusiastically believe that the web offers great potential for communication and learning, as well as for fun and leisure. But we also recognise legitimate concerns about the dangers, especially for children and vulnerable people.

Iriss has been reorganising and refocussing but we've not been standing still. This month's column offers a recap on how we are using the web to help you keep abreast of what's happening.

Almost daily the broadcast and print media announce new evidence that, for example, doctors could spot autism earlier by observing how toddlers respond to cartoons or that there is a direct link between passive smoking and dementia. These reports seldom cite the source and, worse, often report the findings selectively or inaccurately.

The little orange icon below can make your life easier. You will see it all over the web and it means you can keep up to date without having to visit the website to see what's new. The icon denotes the existence of something called an RSS feed (sometimes called news feeds, web feeds, XML feeds or simply feeds). RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication but you don't have to worry about this. More important is what it does, which is to summarise and syndicate.

Social media - the collective term for services such as Facebook, Flickr and Delicious - allow us to gather, store and share knowledge, information and experience. Previously we reported on Steph Gray's social media test suite which he set up to measure the extent to which social media websites were being routinely blocked.

Even the best designed websites and web-based services can be rendered inaccessible by corporate IT policies. Polices which restrict access to social media sites seem to be particularly prevalent in the public sector.