How To Make Internet Searches More Effective

There are somewhere between 200 and 800 million documents on the Internet

. So it's no surprise that it can be difficult to find the information for which you're looking. Search engines can help you find what you need, but even the best will pull up web sites that don't quite match your search. The good news is that you can make your search more effective (and less time-consuming) by knowing how to correctly enter your query.

Search engines sift through gigantic databases to narrow down the results using only the keywords and text you give them. In order to make your search productive, first define the topic you're researching. You want to know precisely what you are looking for as well as what you're not. Rather than entering an actual question (although this can be effective if the search pulls up titles that match the question or if the search engine is built for this format), type in several keywords. For an effective search, you need up to six to eight specific words, preferably nouns. Don't use articles and pronouns, and avoid verbs if you can. It doesn't matter if you capitalize the words or not.

Your best tactic is to use phrases within quotation marks. This will ensure that only documents containing the phrase (the exact word order of your entry) show up in your results. A more advanced search form is to use Boolean commands or operators. The three most common are AND, OR, and AND NOT. If you use AND between two phrases in quotation marks, it means you want documents that include all of the words. If it doesn't have all of them, it won't show up in the results. OR, on the other hand, means you want a document that has at least one of the phrases. It is especially effective to use OR to enter several synonyms. AND NOT (or sometimes BUT NOT or NOT) excludes documents that contain unwanted information (i.e. the keywords in quotations that you enter afterward). Be careful about using this, since if a web site has useful information but mentions the phrase you don't want, that site won't come up. It is helpful, however, to make sure you don't get any distasteful content.

If you have any questions, check the "Help" option on the search engine. You will most likely find more tips to aid you in choosing and entering the most effective keywords.

by: Art Gib

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