| Searching:
the Basics |
| The typical
search done on the web goes as follows: You reach your favorite search
site and enter a word or two in a text box. After which you either press
enter or click the submit button, and your query is on its way to the data
base. A few seconds later you are confronted with about 100,000 hits that
match the query that you submitted. You click through as many irrelevant
links as possible before you are over whelmed with the desire to forget
the whole thing. The few words you typed in, caused you to perform the
worst search possible.
Do
Not be afraid just ask a Question!
The most
successful way to search the web, is to consider the text field as a place
to ask a question rather than a place to enter a few key words. The question
should address exactly what you are looking for. Search engines do an adequate
job of returning respectable hits to queries such as "Where can I get a
driver to run my Winmodem with Windows NT?". |
| Searching:
Advanced |
| Learning
to work with Booleans can give you an advantage in getting the most out
of your search, of which the most widely used are and, or and not. For
instance try structuring your queries with a few or all of them included.
For example, Winmodem and Windows NT, or Winmodem or Sportster and Windows
NT not Windows 95. Not all search engines follow the strict rules imposed
by Booleans, some simply move the sites that include all the words closer
to the top starting with the most relevant.
The
use of quotes and parentheses can help.
To require
that the words are included on all the links returned, the + sign can be
used to represent and and the - sign to represent not. But
if you are still faced with too many choices you still have two more aces
up your sleeves. The "" and the (), these two operators cause the search
engines to find exact phrases and to group terms, as in this example. (Winmodem
not Sportster) and "drivers or upgrades" and WindowsNT not Windows 95.
While the use of Booleans will yield more precise results, there is always
room for improvement. |
| Searching:
Improving the Search |
| The top
20 links should hold what you are looking for, if not then it is very important
to study what the search engine returns to you. If you still get a lot
of irrelevant matches, you will need to reconsider your search. Alternately
too few matches will cause you to broaden your search.
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