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TOP 10 SEARCH TIPS http://www.melissabarker.com/SearchTips.pdf

By Melissa S. Barker

Introduction For an informative overview of search engines, subject directories, intuitive search, Over 60 million American adults use search and specialty search resources, take a engines on a typical day. With over a trillion moment to view the entertaining video Web pages to search, just how effective are Searching the Internet – A Primer by those millions of Internet users in finding Internet pioneer Marcus Zillman or his more information? According to IDC, a top in depth whitepaper on the subject at provider of , at least 50% of http://www.SearchingTheInternet.info/. the time, searchers are unable to find what they seek. Fortunately, by using the TIP 2: Use Boolean Operators following top 10 search tips, you can greatly increase your chances of quickly and easily The biggest mistake a user locating what you want on the Internet. makes is to enter a single nondescript keyword. If you type “car” into and TIP 1: Choose the Right Search Tool click the button, you will or Technique receive over 900 million search results! To narrow your search, start by adding more If you looking for Web pages containing keywords. Adding the keywords battery specific words or phrases, search engines, dead after car will return less than a million such as Google, provide a fast and efficient search hits. To hone your search further, you means of locating those pages. For a broader will need to construct a complex query. A view of the information on the Internet, or complex query uses Boolean operators to when you are unfamiliar with a topic, you define the relationships among your can use subject directories, such as the keywords. Virtual , to acquaint yourself with the field and select Common Boolean operators include AND, the most appropriate information resources. OR, and NOT. The AND operator restricts Sometimes your best approach is to your search results by telling the search intuitively guess at the name of the site that engine to return only Web pages that contain might hold the information you seek. all the specified keywords (e.g., car AND battery AND dead). It is unnecessary to use Unfortunately, search engines, subject this Boolean operator in Google because, by directories, and informed guesses cannot default, it assumes any keywords or phrases find the vast majority of Web pages on the you enter are connected by the AND Internet because they are stored in operator. The OR operator let’s you expand , inaccessible by conventional your search by locating all the pages that search tools and techniques. Instead, you contain a least one of the specified keywords must use specialty search resources to locate (e.g., car OR automobile OR vehicle). The this hidden content. NOT operator, symbolized by the (-) minus sign in Google, causes the search engine to exclude pages that contain certain keywords Google Guide Quick Reference: Google (e.g., -buy). You can combine these Advanced Operators, Yahoo! Meta Search operators to create a complex query that will Words, and Bing: Advanced Search locate the exact information you desire. Keywords. For example, if you are looking for details TIP 4: Google is Not the Only Game about a dead car battery and you don’t want in Town to be bothered with sales pitches, you could enter this complex query: car battery dead (- Although Google is by far and away the buy OR -purchase OR -sale). Google will most popular search engine, no single search return pages about dead car batteries, but engine, not even Google, can cover even a exclude those with the words “buy, fraction of the entire Internet. To perform a purchase, or sale,” thus, reducing the more comprehensive search of the Internet chances you will be pestered by sites and, hence, increase your odds of finding attempting to sell you a new battery. To additional useful information about a topic, learn more about how to improve your be sure to use these other general purpose searches with Boolean operators, check out search engines: AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Boolean Searching on the Internet and AOL Search, Ask, Bing, Hotbot, SurfWax, Google search basics. and Yahoo! TIP 3: Use Advanced Search TIP 5: Use Metasearch Engines Operators Since each search engine covers different The major search engines, such as Google, portions of the Internet at different times, to offer advanced search operators that let you perform a thorough search of the Internet, really zero in what you are looking for on you should query as many search engines as the Internet. For example, in Google you can possible. However, going to each search use the site: operator to search a particular engine and repeatedly entering the same Web site for information. Type health care search query is both time consuming and crisis site:www.newsweek.com into Google tedious. Metasearch engines let you enter and it will return a list of articles in your query just once and then query multiple Newsweek.com that mention the health care search engines simultaneously, returning a crisis. Let’s assume that you have found an compilation of search results from all the expert on the health care crisis in one of the search engines queried. articles you read at Newsweek.com and now The best metasearch engines eliminate want to read more about subject by the same duplicate results and even rank the results author. Simply type health care crisis based on relevancy to your query. The author:Dr. Marc Nuwer into Google and potential time saved by using a metasearch you will receive more than 1,300 search engine is offset by the limitation that often results to choose from. Google offers many the most popular search engines are not other powerful advanced search operators, queried by a because of such as location: to restrict a search to a legal and fee issues. Thus, the most particular country (e.g., health care crisis thorough search strategy is to employ location:UK), info: to discover details about metasearch engines in combination with the a site (e.g., info:www.newsweek.com), or individual search engines (i.e., Google and link: to see who is linking to a site (e.g., Bing). link:www.newsweek.com). To learn more about these advanced search operators, visit Some of the more powerful metasearch • Directory Resources - A directory of engines include: , Mamma, ixquick, directories , Search.com, and Clusty. • Google Directory - The Web organized by topics into categories TIP 6: Use Specialty Search Engines • INFOMINE - Scholarly Internet Although general purpose search engines resource collections like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing provide • ipl - The Internet Public Library broad-coverage of the Web, you will likely • Librarians' Internet Index - Subject achieve superior results using a specialty catalogue handcrafted by search engine, when you are looking for professional librarians information about a specific topic or region. • Open Directory Project - The most The following is a brief sample of powerful comprehensive human edited specialty search engines: directory of the Web • Archives - Search or browse • Academic and Scholar Search subject-specific directory Engines and Resources • WWW Virtual Library - The original • eCouponBot – Find Online coupons and oldest subject catalogue on the and Discount Codes Web • eFinancialBot – Your Global Financial Search Engine In addition to these general purpose • eGreenBot - Green Resources and directories, specialty subject directories Search Engine focus on particular topics and, hence, offer • eHealthcareBot - Search Engine for more in depth and meticulous coverage. The Healthcare Resources following is a small but highly useful • eMarketingBot - Search Engine for selection of specialty subject directories: Health Care Resources • Business Intelligence Online • 7in1 Web – More specialty search Resources - Online business engines intelligence resources TIP 7: Use Subject Directories • eReference Library - Guide to selected academic and government Subject directories provide the ability to resources quickly get a birds-eye-view of a topic, and • Finding Experts By Using the then drill down to find detailed or “finer- Internet - Directory of experts grained” information about the topic. Unlike • Finding People Resources and Sites - search engines, which index millions of Guide to people location services Web pages and typically present you with an • Healthcare Bots and Subject overwhelming number of search results, Directories - Index of selected health subject directories offer a limited and neatly care resources categorized set of topics, typically sorted • Intute - Directory of study and alphabetically for easy reference and research resources browsing. A few of the most popular broad- • Online Research Tools – Guide to coverage subject directories include: online research tools • BUBL LINK - A catalogue of all • Web Based Resources - Directory of academic subject areas electronic academic journals • Digital Librarian - A librarian's subject guide to the best of the Web TIP 8: Search Intuitively TIP 9: When you are searching for the Web site of The invisible or deep Web is the vast a particular organization, person, place, or reservoir of information stored in databases thing, often the quickest and most enjoyable and sometimes dynamically generated only way to locate the site is to make an educated upon request, making it inaccessible to or intuitive guess about its name. To conduct search engines, subject directories, and even an intuitive search, begin by locating the intuitive searches. It is difficult to measure narrow Address Bar across the top of your the precise size of the deep Web. However, . It is the text box that contains BrightPlanet, a leader in the industry, the Web address or Universal Resource estimates it is approximately 500 times Locator (URL) of the Web site currently larger than the visible or surface Web (the displayed in your browser. portion accessible to conventional search tools and techniques). Since the surface Web Delete the current URL (Web address) in the has more than a trillion pages--that means Address Bar and type www. followed by the deep Web likely contains more than 500 your intuitive guess of the name of a Web trillion pages! In other words, 99.8 percent site. You can use any combination of proper of Web content is unavailable to traditional names, abbreviated names, or an acronym. search engines and subject directories. Keep in mind that if you think the Web site name includes multiple words, then you How can a person chart a course through the must put them together. For example, if you enormous and unknown expanse of the deep were looking for auto prices, you might Web to discover the information they want? enter www.AutoPrices in the Address Bar. Marcus Zillman, a renowned international Next, add one of these top level domains or Internet expert, has created the Virtual suffixes: Private Library, a cutting-edge Web site that guides you through the uncharted territories • .com for commercial of the deep Web. • .edu for educational • .org for other organizations The Virtual Private Library is an extensive • .gov for U.S. Federal Government subject catalogue of valuable information • .mil for U.S. military resources on the Internet. This ground- • .net for Internet service providers breaking site is made possible by the power of Subject Tracer Information BotsTM. A • .biz for business Subject Tracer Information Bot is a highly • .info for information sophisticated computer program, which uses Since the most common top level domain is to track down and .com (commercial), your intuitive guess retrieve the most relevant information might look something like this resources on various topics from the surface www.AutoPrices.com. Another approach and deep Web. would be to use the acronym nada (National Subject Tracer Information Bots draw on the Automobile Dealers Association), with resources in the Deep Web Research site, an www. in front and .com at the end, resulting information blog also developed by Marcus in the intuitive guess of www.nada.com. It is Zillman, which contains a wealth of the worth noting that intuitive searches don’t latest deep Web information, including always work the way you expect, sometimes sections on articles, papers, forums, audios, you will find a URL that no longer functions and videos. Subject Tracer Information Bots or one has taken not yet been registered. also scour the wilds of the immense deep Web to bring back relevant links and raw TIP 10: Use data, then automatically identify, classify, and organize the information into easily read Social search uses the power of the templates. When required, new discovery community participation and judgment to analysis is done by hand to ensure locate information of general interest and meticulous coverage of the information answer specific questions. Social search tucked away in Internet databases. works well for finding subjective content through informed opinions. Common social This exclusive and powerful combination of search platforms include blogs (Blogdigger, robotically and human generated deep and BlogPulse, Technorati), microblogs (Jaik, surface Web information results in the Seesmic, ), social networks Virtual Private Library’s impressive (. MySpace, LinkedIn), social collection of Subject Tracer Information bookmarking (Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, BlogsTM. These subject are Furl), collaborative harvesters (Digg, arranged alphabetically and include Popurls, Reddit), and question-and-answer resources on biotechnology, business (Q&A) sites (Answerbag.com, intelligence, , Internet allexperts.com, WikiAnswers). demographics, Internet hoaxes, journalism, military, outsourcing, and privacy to name Blogs are places where people post just a few. commentaries and invite responses about almost any topic. Microblogs are typically To view one of these subject libraries, used on mobile devices for the same albeit simply click on the link. For example, if you briefer exchanges. Blog and microblogs are click Business Intelligence Resources, a great platforms for learning about current page appears with an extensive list of events and tapping into consensus opinions. resources for gathering intelligence about Social networks allow people to connect your business competitors. You can quickly with like and unlike minded people to create browse these resources and choose the most discussion forums and groups about a interesting to examine. variety of topics. allow people to store and vote on their favorite For instance, selecting the 50 Web Tools to Web pages, thus, harnessing the power of Keep Tabs on Your Competitors produces a the masses to identify the most useful sites page with a set of useful utilities for tracking on the Web. Collaborative harvesters your competitors’ activities online. These aggregate and rank based on include tools and services to identify your popularity as measured by user votes. competition, their Web hosting services, Finally, Q&A sites let you pose questions company information, popularity of their and receive answers back from anyone, Web sites, the keywords your competitors hopefully, knowledgeable enough to reply. are using to attract customers through search engine traffic, and changes to their Web For a wide-ranging list of social search sites over time. (You can learn more about engines, be sure to check out the resources the Virtual Private Library by viewing: The at http://SocialInformatics.net/. Virtual Private Library and Deep Web.)

Melissa S. Barker, Author of Internet Research – Illustrated 5th Edition, Course Technology, 2010