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sawanbanna
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« on: January 07, 2006, 10:05:53 PM » |
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Get better search results online
Sawanbanna: 1/7/2005 (another little topic I wrote, someone might already knew that)
Search sites promise access to billions of Web pages. But if you don't enter the correct search terms in the proper way, you'll be swamped with wrong information.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, over 80 percent of Internet users turn to the top three search sites - Google, Yahoo! and MSN. However, despite advances in indexing the Web, these sites are not foolproof.
Type the words "miserable failure" into any of those search sites. The top result is George W. Bush's biography. A few savvy pranksters were able to manipulate those results.
So, how can you improve your search results? There are three ways. Choose your search terms carefully, learn operators and use keywords.
When choosing search terms, be specific but not wordy. For example, imagine you wanted information on artists. If you use "painters," you'll receive returns on both the artistic kind and those who charge $300 for a bedroom. However, "18th century painters" will give you better results.
(Search engines are not case sensitive. So "18th Century Painters" and "18th century painters" yield the same results.)
Google, MSN and Yahoo! also have operators to focus results.
For instance, use quotation marks to find complete phrases. "New York" "fashion institute" will give different results than "New York fashion institute."
You can use plus and minus signs to include or exclude words. By entering "+domestic cats" (without quotation marks), the search site will find pages that contain all the terms preceded by "+." If you enter "+rescue cats -feral" (without quotation marks), the search site will return pages of rescue cats with no mention of feral. The word NOT in all capital letters can be substituted for the minus sign, such as "+rescue cats NOT feral."
Use the word OR in all capital letters if interested in alternatives. Let's say you wanted information on camping or swimming in Hawaii. In the search box, type "Hawaii camping OR swimming." You can also use the pipe symbol ("|"), such as "Hawaii camping | swimming."
Google, MSN and Yahoo! say they include the operator AND by default. Therefore, it's supposedly unnecessary to use AND or "&." However, Google produces different results with the search terms "cat dog" and "cat AND dog." So include the operators.
To focus results further, use the advanced search features. By selecting variables from a drop down box or clicking a check box, you can limit results to sites updated within a specific time frame, that contain a certain file type (html, pdf, doc, etc), that use a specific domain suffix (.com, .edu, .gov, etc.) and more.
On Yahoo!'s main page, the Advanced link is to the right of the search button. Google's Advanced Search link is to the right of the search box. MSN uses Search Builder; its link is below the search box.
Use keywords (sometimes called meta words or query words) if the advanced search is inadequate. Keywords are used with a colon. For example, if you enter "amazing grace contains:mp3," MSN will return a list of Web pages that contain the words "amazing grace" and an .MP3 file. The .MP3 may not always be the song Amazing Grace, but you've weeded out a lot of junk.
Other keywords are site: (searches one specific Web site), prefer: (adds emphasis to a word or operator) and language: (results are in a language).
There are many more keywords, specific to each site. Check the search site's help section.
Finally, even the most innocuous keywords can return pornography. To avoid that, the big three search sites have a SafeSearch feature. It is located in Google's "Preferences," Yahoo!'s "Advanced Search" and MSN's "Settings."
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