Top 10 Internet Search Tips

1 Top 10 Internet Search tips By Melissa S. Barker Introduction For an informative overview of Search engines, subject directories, intuitive Search , Over 60 million American adults use Search and specialty Search resources, take a engines on a typical day. With over a trillion moment to view the entertaining video Web pages to Search , just how effective are Searching the Internet A Primer by those millions of Internet users in finding Internet pioneer Marcus Zillman or his more information? According to IDC, a top in depth whitepaper on the subject at provider of Internet research, at least 50% of the time, searchers are unable to find what they seek. Fortunately, by using the TIP 2: Use Boolean Operators following top 10 Search tips , you can greatly increase your chances of quickly and easily The biggest mistake a Search engine user locating what you want on the Internet .

2 Makes is to enter a single nondescript keyword. If you type car into Google and TIP 1: Choose the Right Search Tool click the Google Search button, you will or Technique receive over 900 million Search results! To narrow your Search , start by adding more If you looking for Web pages containing keywords. Adding the keywords battery specific words or phrases, Search engines, dead after car will return less than a million such as Google, provide a fast and efficient Search hits. To hone your Search further, you means of locating those pages. For a broader will need to construct a complex query. A. view of the information on the Internet , or complex query uses Boolean operators to when you are unfamiliar with a topic, you define the relationships among your can use subject directories, such as the keywords. World Wide Web Virtual Library, to acquaint yourself with the field and select Common Boolean operators include AND, the most appropriate information resources.

3 OR, and NOT. The AND operator restricts Sometimes your best approach is to your Search results by telling the Search intuitively guess at the name of the site that engine to return only Web pages that contain might hold the information you seek. all the specified keywords ( , car AND. battery AND dead). It is unnecessary to use Unfortunately, Search engines, subject this Boolean operator in Google because, by directories, and informed guesses cannot default, it assumes any keywords or phrases find the vast majority of Web pages on the you enter are connected by the AND. Internet because they are stored in operator. The OR operator let's you expand databases, inaccessible by conventional your Search by locating all the pages that Search tools and techniques. Instead, you contain a least one of the specified keywords must use specialty Search resources to locate ( , car OR automobile OR vehicle).

4 The this hidden content. NOT operator, symbolized by the (-) minus sign in Google, causes the Search engine to exclude pages that contain certain keywords Google Guide Quick Reference: Google ( , -buy). You can combine these Advanced Operators, Yahoo! Meta Search operators to create a complex query that will Words, and Bing: Advanced Search locate the exact information you desire. Keywords. For example, if you are looking for details TIP 4: Google is Not the Only Game about a dead car battery and you don't want in Town to be bothered with sales pitches, you could enter this complex query: car battery dead (- Although Google is by far and away the buy OR -purchase OR -sale). Google will most popular Search engine , no single Search return pages about dead car batteries, but engine , not even Google, can cover even a exclude those with the words buy, fraction of the entire Internet .

5 To perform a purchase, or sale, thus, reducing the more comprehensive Search of the Internet chances you will be pestered by sites and, hence, increase your odds of finding attempting to sell you a new battery. To additional useful information about a topic, learn more about how to improve your be sure to use these other general purpose searches with Boolean operators, check out Search engines: AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Boolean Searching on the Internet and AOL Search , Ask, Bing, Hotbot, SurfWax, Google Search basics. and Yahoo! TIP 3: Use Advanced Search TIP 5: Use Metasearch Engines Operators Since each Search engine covers different The major Search engines, such as Google, portions of the Internet at different times, to offer advanced Search operators that let you perform a thorough Search of the Internet , really zero in what you are looking for on you should query as many Search engines as the Internet .

6 For example, in Google you can possible. However, going to each Search use the site: operator to Search a particular engine and repeatedly entering the same Web site for information. Type health care Search query is both time consuming and crisis into Google tedious. Metasearch engines let you enter and it will return a list of articles in your query just once and then query multiple that mention the health care Search engines simultaneously, returning a crisis. Let's assume that you have found an compilation of Search results from all the expert on the health care crisis in one of the Search engines queried. articles you read at and now The best metasearch engines eliminate want to read more about subject by the same duplicate results and even rank the results author. Simply type health care crisis based on relevancy to your query. The author:Dr. Marc Nuwer into Google and potential time saved by using a metasearch you will receive more than 1,300 Search engine is offset by the limitation that often results to choose from.

7 Google offers many the most popular Search engines are not other powerful advanced Search operators, queried by a metasearch engine because of such as location: to restrict a Search to a legal and fee issues. Thus, the most particular country ( , health care crisis thorough Search strategy is to employ location:UK), info: to discover details about metasearch engines in combination with the a site ( , ), or individual Search engines ( , Google and link: to see who is linking to a site ( , Bing). ). To learn more about these advanced Search operators, visit Some of the more powerful metasearch Directory Resources - A directory of engines include: dogpile, Mamma, ixquick, directories metacrawler, , and Vivisimo. Google Directory - The Web organized by topics into categories TIP 6: Use Specialty Search Engines INFOMINE - Scholarly Internet Although general purpose Search engines resource collections like Google, Yahoo!

8 , and Bing provide ipl - The Internet Public Library broad-coverage of the Web, you will likely Librarians' Internet Index - Subject achieve superior results using a specialty catalogue handcrafted by Search engine , when you are looking for professional librarians information about a specific topic or region. Open Directory Project - The most The following is a brief sample of powerful comprehensive human edited specialty Search engines: directory of the Web Scout Archives - Search or browse Academic and Scholar Search subject-specific directory Engines and Resources WWW Virtual Library - The original eCouponBot Find Online coupons and oldest subject catalogue on the and Discount Codes Web eFinancialBot Your Global Financial Search engine In addition to these general purpose eGreenBot - Green Resources and directories, specialty subject directories Search engine focus on particular topics and, hence, offer eHealthcareBot - Search engine for more in depth and meticulous coverage.

9 The Healthcare Resources following is a small but highly useful eMarketingBot - Search engine for selection of specialty subject directories: Health Care Resources Business Intelligence Online 7in1 Web More specialty Search Resources - Online business engines intelligence resources TIP 7: Use Subject Directories eReference Library - Guide to selected academic and government Subject directories provide the ability to resources quickly get a birds-eye-view of a topic, and Finding Experts By Using the then drill down to find detailed or finer- Internet - Directory of experts grained information about the topic. Unlike Finding People Resources and Sites - Search engines, which index millions of Guide to people location services Web pages and typically present you with an Healthcare Bots and Subject overwhelming number of Search results, Directories - Index of selected health subject directories offer a limited and neatly care resources categorized set of topics, typically sorted Intute - Directory of study and alphabetically for easy reference and research resources browsing.

10 A few of the most popular broad- Online Research Tools Guide to coverage subject directories include: online research tools BUBL LINK - A catalogue of all Web Based Resources - Directory of academic subject areas electronic academic journals Digital Librarian - A librarian's subject guide to the best of the Web TIP 8: Search Intuitively TIP 9: Deep Web When you are searching for the Web site of The invisible or deep Web is the vast a particular organization, person, place, or reservoir of information stored in databases thing, often the quickest and most enjoyable and sometimes dynamically generated only way to locate the site is to make an educated upon request, making it inaccessible to or intuitive guess about its name. To conduct Search engines, subject directories, and even an intuitive Search , begin by locating the intuitive searches. It is difficult to measure narrow Address Bar across the top of your the precise size of the deep Web.