How to Find What You Want With a Search Engine

If you're like 70% of Americans, chances are that you suffer from "search engine fatigue" when trying to find information on the Web. Three out of four people walk away from their computer without the information they're trying to find. It doesn't have to be that way. All you need are a few basic tricks and some know-how to get what you want from a search engine.

Search Engine Types
When you search the Web, you have three options: use a search engine, use a metasearch engine or use a subject directory. A search engine, such as Ask, uses spiders that roam around the Web to index pages and create a directory of Web sites. Metasearch engines, such as Dogpile, Mama and Vivisimo connect to a number of popular search engines to provide the top results from across the Web. Subject directories are maintained by human editors and typically contain information on a specific subject or group of subjects.

Because different search engines use different methods to catalog, index and rank Web sites, no two search engines return the same results for your search. If you run the same search with different search engines, you'll find that around 60% of results are duplicates and 40% are original. If you're having trouble finding the results you want, try running a search with a different search engine.

Punctuation Is Powerful
If you type a phrase into a search engine and hit find, you'll receive thousands of pages that include your keywords scattered throughout the text. If you put quotation marks around the phrase, the search engine only returns documents that include the phrase exactly as you type it.

Another popular symbol is the + symbol. You can use the + in conjunction with quotation marks to search multiple phrases, or with single words to make sure they are included. Some search engines ignore certain common words during the search process, so adding a + is a way to tell the search engine to include that word during the search. The + symbol tells the search engine to only return documents that include all of the specified keywords, instead of one or some of the keywords, as it might without the + symbol.

The - symbol excludes any pages that include a keyword you don't want. If you're searching for a keyword that is commonly paired with a second keyword, you can exclude any examples of that pairing by adding the - symbol in front of the second word. For example, if you are doing a search for meat, you might search for +meat - potatoes. This tells the search engine to include all results that contain meat without and ignore those that include potatoes.

Boolean Searches
Some search engines recognize Boolean commands to narrow search results. Boolean operators include "and," "or" and "not" and sometimes proximity indicators, such as "near" and "adjacent." Some of these terms are easily understandable; "and" will return both words in a query, while "or" returns results for either word in a query. Using "not" or "and not" in a phrase returns results for one keyword, but not the other, similar to the - symbol.

The "near" operator returns search results for words within a set number of one another, although the specific number depends on the search engine. The "adjacent" (sometimes shortened to "adj") operator functions similarly to quotes, returning only specific phrases, but the -adj' command tells the search engine to accept the words in any order. Not all search engines accept Boolean commands, and some require the commands to be typed in all capital letters. Like punctuation and symbols, Boolean commands are a powerful tool to find specific information on a search engine.

Evaluate the Results
Once you've queried the search engine and have a list of results, you must determine which results are worth investigating and which links you can ignore. There are a few quick things to note that may tell you whether a Web site is relevant before you ever open it.

First, check the domain. Knowing what the domains stand for can help you eliminate inappropriate results or zone in on the most likely items immediately. Government domains are denoted by .gov or .mil extensions. Many state Web sites are composed of the two-letter state abbreviation, followed by the .us extension. Education Web sites use the .edu extension. Nonprofit organizations use the .org extension. The .com extension is used by commercial Web sites, which may be published by anyone.

Once you've selected a link from the search engine, click through to the Web page and look at the date. If you're looking for time-sensitive information, such as information about electronics, you'll want to ensure the Web page has been updated recently. Next, check for information about the publisher. If there is little or no information about the qualifications of the publisher, the Web site may not be a reliable source of information.

Browser Tools
Both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer have built-in search engine toolbars in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen where you can add your favorite search providers, such as Google, Amazon.com or Yahoo! This puts a favorite search engine at your fingertips.

Newer versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer also remember the sites that you've visited, which may allow you to bypass a search engine altogether. Typing the first few letters in the URL will give you a list of choices. Be aware that clearing your personal data or deleting your History breaks this function.

Bookmarks are another way to tackle search engine shortfalls. If you find a site with relevant information, bookmark it so you won't need to remember the pages you saw. It's also helpful to include the names of trusted sites when using a search engine. If you like the reviews on a certain site, include the site's domain or name in your query, and the search engine will highlight relevant pages from that site.