How to get better results when searching the web
From ArticleWorld
The web has been often associated with a large library or a book. Although there is a lot of truth in this comparison, at least in the way of information as quantity, there is a lot of difference between a library and the web.
The main difference is on the way information is indexed and looked up. In a library, everything is tidy: all the books are sorted and indexed according to a number of criteria. This does not happen on the World Wide Web, and, as a result, finding the desired results is sometimes difficult.
Nevertheless, there are some things you can do to improve the relevance of the results you obtain when searching the web:
[edit]
Tips
- Pick a good search engine. We are not really into advertising, but Google is surely top-notch today. Teoma is also a good option.
- Search for specific things rather than general ones. If you are trying to find a drawing about Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine, searching for "Leonardo da Vinci flying machine" does not fully describe your target. "Pictures Leonardo da Vinci flying machine" is a set of keywords that matches your target better. If you want to know a few general things about a term, look it up in Wikipedia rather than searching the web.
- Focus on content, not shape. Google, for example, limits your search query to ten words. Therefore, "Pictures of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine and detailed schematics or replica" is a bad search engine. In fact, do not include common words like and, or or of. Think in terms of keywords: what are the words that you will surely find on a page detailing what you want?
- Use specialized tools. Google can search through images, for example ( http://images.google.com ).
- Learn Boolean. No, it's not a real language, but it helps. Learn how to exclude words from your search. For example, if, returning to our flying machine example, you get too many results about The da Vinci Code, you could just exclude "Code" from your search by prepending it with a "-". Also, if you are looking for a specific phrase, enclose it in quotes. Refer to your search engine's guide for more details on this.
- Use Advanced Search options if needed. This facility allows you to further refine your search.