Vocabulary Control (Synonyms, Homonymns, Heirarchy)
The point of this tip is merely to remember about language. For example:
Bat - can mean either baseball bat or the furry rodent
Car and Automobile mean generally the same thing
A dog is a type of Mammal which is a type of Animal
In Europe the word Holiday is commonly used in place of Vacation
...
Case Sensitivity
Most search engines are "strangely" case sensitive which means:
- if you search for cats - most Search Tools will look for cats, Cats, CATS, etc.
- if you search for Cats - most Search Tools will look for Cats, CATS, etc. but won't look for cats because you capitalized the first letter.
- if you search for CATS - most Search Tools will look for CATS and not look for cats or Cats
Remember this can be very helpful when you're searching for proper nouns - e.g. Washington Monument, Philadelphia Eagles, etc.
Implied Boolean Symbols (Used for And, Not, Phrase searching)
+ The plus sign placed before a word (e.g. +dogs) tells the search tool that the word must be included on a webpage in order to be included on the Search Results page
- The minus sign placed before a word (e.g. -poodles) tells the search tool that the word must not be included on a webpage in order to be included on the Search Results page
"" The quotation symbols placed around a group of words (e.g. "how do I love thee") tell the search tool that the words must appear as a phrase on a webpage in order for the page to be included on a Search Results page
NOTE: These symbols are used in about 90% of Search Tools whereas traditional AND, OR, NOT searching is done in many different ways in various Search Tools. If +, -, and "" aren't supported you'll know quickly as the Search Tool will tell you it can't find anything.
Ctrl+f (For page searches) (Apple+f for Mac users)
This tip is more of an aid for use when you go to a webpage that a Search Engine claimed to have the word/words you searched on. When you go to a page you can press and hold down the Ctrl key and then press the F key once and a "Find on Page" box will appear on the screen. Using this tool you can type in the word you are looking for on a page and be taken directly to it. Remember, this is not a websearch you are merely finding a word on a page that you are already on. This tip is used mostly when a page you come to is VERY long and you have to search for a particular term on the page.
"Bookmarking/Favoriting" Search Results (Bookmark=Netscape/Favorite=Internet Explorer)
One of the best ways to make your life easier. If you do a search and it brings you back results that you're happy with, there is no reason that you can't bookmark the results. This way if you need to do the search again or if you can't finish going thru the results you can come back using the bookmark. This is especially helpful if you've put together a long search statement (e.g. "dog breeders" +poodles -toy = a search for non-toy poodle breeders)
Pick 3
To really improve your web searching ability it's really best to pick one search engine from the Subject Directory list, one from the Search Engine list, and one from the MetaSearch Engine list and learn how each one works. There are roughly 30 major Search Engines and, to be blunt, I refuse to learn more than a few of these as I don't have that kind of time (and remember, it's my job to find information on the web). However, I know @3 tools very well and by knowing what they do, how they do it, and what they cover I can find a vast majority of things that I'm looking for. Better advice on how to do this is in the practice exercises.