TIP 1: Choose the Right Search Tool or Technique If you looking for Web pages containing specific words or phrases, search engines, such as Google, provide a fast and efficient means of locating those pages. For a broader view of the information on the Internet, or when you are unfamiliar with a topic, you can use subject directories, such as the World Wide Web Virtual Library, to acquaint yourself with the field and select the most appropriate information resources.
Sometimes your best approach is to intuitively guess at the name of the site that might hold the information you seek. Unfortunately, search engines, subject
directories, and informed guesses cannot find the vast majority of Web pages on the Internet because they are stored in databases, inaccessible by conventional search tools and techniques. Instead, you must use specialty search resources to locate this hidden content.
For an informative overview of search engines, subject directories, intuitive search, and specialty search resources, take a moment to view the entertaining video Searching the Internet – A Primer by Internet pioneer Marcus Zillman or his more in depth whitepaper on the subject at http://www.SearchingTheInternet.info/
TIP 2: Use Boolean Operators The biggest mistake a search engine user makes is to enter a single nondescript keyword. If you type “car” into Google and
click the Google Search button, you will receive over 900 million search results! To narrow your search, start by adding more keywords. Adding the keywords battery dead after car will return less than a million search hits. To hone your search further, you will need to construct a complex query. A complex query uses Boolean operators to define the relationships among your keywords. Common Boolean operators include AND, OR, and NOT. The AND operator restricts
your search results by telling the search engine to return only Web pages that contain all the specified keywords (e.g., car AND battery AND dead). It is unnecessary to use this Boolean operator in Google because, by default, it assumes any keywords or phrases you enter are connected by the AND operator. The OR operator let’s you expand your search by locating all the pages that contain a least one of the specified keywords (e.g., car OR automobile OR vehicle). The NOT operator, symbolized by the (-) minus sign in Google, causes the search engine to exclude pages that contain certain keywords (e.g., -buy). You can combine these operators to create a complex query that will locate the exact information you desire. For example, if you are looking for details about a dead car battery and you don’t want to be bothered with sales pitches, you could enter this complex query: car battery dead (-buy OR -purchase OR -sale). Google will
return pages about dead car batteries, but exclude those with the words “buy, purchase, or sale,” thus, reducing the chances you will be pestered by sites
attempting to sell you a new battery. To learn more about how to improve your searches with Boolean operators, check out Boolean Searching on the Internet and Google search basics.
TIP 3: Use Advanced Search Operators The major search engines, such as Google, offer advanced search operators that let you really zero in what you are looking for on the Internet. For example, in Google you can use the site: operator to search a particular Web site for information. Type health care crisis site:www.newsweek.com into Google and it will return a list of articles in Newsweek.com that mention the health care crisis. Let’s assume that you have found an expert on the health care crisis in one of the articles you read at Newsweek.com and now want to read more about subject by the same author. Simply type health care crisis author:Dr. Marc Nuwer into Google and you will receive more than 1,300 search results to choose from. Google offers many other powerful advanced search operators, such as location: to restrict a search to a particular country (e.g., health care crisis location:UK), info: to discover details about a site (e.g., info:www.newsweek.com), or link: to see who is linking to a site (e.g., link:www.newsweek.com). To learn more about these advanced search operators, visit Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators, Yahoo! Meta Search Words, and Bing: Advanced Search Keywords.
TIP 4: Google is Not the Only Game in Town Although Google is by far and away the most popular search engine, no single search engine, not even Google, can cover even a fraction of the entire Internet. To perform a more comprehensive search of the Internet and, hence, increase your odds of finding additional useful information about a topic, be sure to use these other general purpose search engines: AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask, Bing, Hotbot, SurfWax,
and Yahoo!
TIP 5: Use Metasearch Engines Since each search engine covers different portions of the Internet at different times, to perform a thorough search of the Internet, you should query as many search engines as possible. However, going to each search engine and repeatedly entering the same search query is both time consuming and tedious. Metasearch engines let you enter your query just once and then query multiple search engines simultaneously, returning a compilation of search results from all the search engines queried. The best metasearch engines eliminate duplicate results and even rank the results based on relevancy to your query. The potential time saved by using a metasearch engine is offset by the limitation that often the most popular search engines are not
queried by a metasearch engine because of legal and fee issues. Thus, the most thorough search strategy is to employ metasearch engines in combination with the individual search engines (i.e., Google and Bing).
Thanks & Regards,
"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
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