3 Better Ways To Search Online

Jul 30
21:00

2003

Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards

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Nothing creates a more ... online ... ... up your favorite search engine to find ... and coming away empty handed after an hour ... Search engines - those s

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Nothing creates a more frustrating online experience than
pulling up your favorite search engine to find something
simple and coming away empty handed after an hour of
searching.

Search engines - those sites that allegedly help you find
what you want online - can cause no end of grief if you
don't know some simple tricks that will vastly improve your
search results.

Suppose you wanted to find information regarding 1954 Ford
truck parts. Most people would search this subject by going
to their favorite search engine and typing in 1954 Ford
truck parts. The search engine would hopefully return
results for sites that matched those keywords.

However,3 Better Ways To Search Online Articles search engines usually also return results
including sites containing only some of the words in your
search. So in this example you would also get sites not
only about 1954 Ford truck parts, but on 1954 Fords, Ford
trucks, truck parts, and trucks.

Virtually everyone knows the frustration of typing keywords
(the topic of your search) into a search engine, clicking
the search button, and then facing the prospect of sorting
through a million pages (literally) to find what you want.

For everyone experiencing search engine frustration, these
suggestions should quickly improve your results.

Tip #1 - To aid you in searching more efficiently, most
search engines allow surfers to perform "Boolean" searches.

This feature narrows the results to only those websites
containing all the words specified, but not necessarily in
the exact order.

Those searching for 1954 Ford truck parts would enter 1954
AND Ford AND truck AND parts into the search box to find
sites containing all of those words.

Tip #2 - Using quotation marks around keyword sets yields
even more specific results.

"1954 Ford truck parts" should produce only those websites
containing this exact phrase somewhere in the website.

Tip #3 - The more specific you get right up front, the
better.

If you want to look for antique car parts for your 1954
Ford truck, start your search with "1954 Ford truck parts"
and work from there.

Don't start with "1954 Ford" because you'll probably just
waste time sorting through everything from cars to
magazines to collector clubs.

It would also help if you searched by the model and any
other specific information.

If refining your searches doesn't get you where you want to
go, several programs exist to help you search more quickly
and effectively.

Copernic (www.copernic.com) examines multiple search
engines then compares each engine's results against the
rest to determine the best sites.

The program then ranks the resulting sites and displays
them for the user. Copernic's free version allows users
unlimited searches for websites.

Web Ferret (www.ferretsoft.com) also offers a free program
that queries multiple search engines and displays the
ranked results in the user's web browser for easy surfing.

With the addition of millions of web pages every week,
continuously honing your search skills represents one of
the smartest investments of time and energy any serious web
surfer can make.