Search Tips
101 – The Newbie’s Guide to Internet Research
Internet
research has become a fast and efficient way to access
information whether it’s for school, work, or to simply
satisfy one’s curiosity and quench one’s constant thirst for
knowledge. As an information-seeker, the key is being
able to access the RIGHT information.
If the
Internet is one big cyber library, search engines are
like virtual card catalogs that help us locate the
information we need. However, considering the rather
overwhelming amount of information available to us about a
single topic, finding what one needs can be a frustrating
process.
Search Tips - Find BETTER Information Faster
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Don't beat around the bush.
When
doing research over the Internet, use the most specific
words you can come up with. For instance, type 19th
century furniture instead of just typing furniture.
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Take notice of the order of your keywords. For
instance, the phrase English apple pie will
return better results than pie apple English!
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Use
discovery keywords. If you
are looking for industry information, use discovery
keywords like tips, guide, articles,
checklist,
resources or FAQ at the end of your
keyword(s).
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Use similar keywords.
If you
are looking for security software, type safety,
secure, private, security software.
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FAR
Phrasing. Enclose keywords in curly brackets { } if
you want the search engine to return a wide range of
results. Using curly brackets means that the search
engine will
consider anything so
long as the keywords you typed are found (somewhat)
close to each other.
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NEAR Phrasing. Enclose keywords in parentheses [ ]
if you want the search engine to return a narrow range
of results. Using the parentheses means that the search
engine will
consider anything so
long as the keywords you typed are found very close to
each other.
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EXACT Phrasing. Enclose keywords in double quotes "
" if you want the search engine to return results that
contain your keywords exactly as they appear.
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Use
Boolean operators. Use the
plus sign (+) if you want certain words to appear (i.e.,
in addition to the keyword(s) you typed) in the search
results. By contrast, use the minus sign (-) if you want
certain words excluded in the search results. For
example, use apple pie recipe +cinnamon if you
only want recipes that have cinnamon as one of the
ingredients. Use apple pie recipe -pear if you
want recipes that do NOT have pear as one of the
ingredients.
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Capitalization.
Although mammoth search engine Google does not take note
of capitalization in the keywords you use, some search
engines do so do try using capitalization (especially
for proper nouns) when using other search engines.
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FIELD searching.
Are you looking for a specific website but can't
remember the exact address? If so, put the word url:
before the keyword. For instance, typing url:
interactive will return a list of sites that that
has the word interactive in its URL. Other fields
you can use are site:, hostname:, link:,
title:, and likes:.
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Take the time to read
snippets and analyze domain names.
By now, you must have
realized that search results are highly influenced by
the keywords you type and the number of times those
keywords are found on a specific Web page.
Snippets are small segments of a web document that
normally appears with the URL link in a search results
page. Before you click on a link, read the snippet first
to validate if your search term is indeed used in the
correct context. In addition, do a quick domain analysis
on the results' website addresses. They are very
suggestive of what the website is all about. Companies
and organizations typically use .com, .net and .org,
while educational institutions normally use .edu.
Similarly, a lot of websites from different countries
have their local domains (i.e. .ca, .uk, .fr, etc.) This
is especially useful for localized search.
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Know
the search engine being used. Search engines are not
created equal and most of the time, all you need to do
to maximize the use of a specific search engine is to
take a few minutes to read its Help or Search Guide
page.
The tips above sure does
explain why most of your searches are returning irrelevant
results doesn't it? For more tips and general information
about search engines, feel free to visit the following
sites.
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Search Engine
Watch - This is a search engine marketing site.
Consequently it delves into the 'behavior' of search
engines and as such provides valuable searching tips.
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Sree - A site that
provides a hodge-podge of tips for surfing online.
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American Girl - The site is really a shopping portal
but there's a section about practical online surfing
tips.
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Online university
libraries are also great sources of web surfing tips.
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