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Over 20 Years in the Computer Business! |
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Over 20 Years in the Computer Business! |
First, DON'T GIVE UP. If you don't find what you are looking for on the first try, rethink your query and try again. Using your word-processor to form your search strings offers more then just spelling checks. By keeping each search query as a separate line in your word-processor you can easily retry several searches in different search engines, by copy and paste.Second, DON'T GIVE UP AGAIN. After you have tried several ways to find what you want in one search engine, try another search engine. All search engines don't have the same information. Some engines are better with some types of information than others.
Spelling counts, misspelled search terms can throw a search engine out into left field. Open your word-processor and size it to small corner of your screen. Type your search string into the word-processor first and check the spelling, then do a Highlight-Copy-and-Paste into the search engine. If you are looking for terms not commonly found in your word-processor's spell checker, such as medical, scientific, legal or other specialized words, try this Online Dictionary, towards the bottom of this dictionary page are links to Specialized English Dictionaries. Once you find the word of interest copy and paste it into your word-processor to build your search string. Then, of course, copy and paste your completed search string from your word-processor to the search engine. Remember to "quote your search string" so you will get hits on the phrase, instead of hits on each individual word.
If you find it difficult to have your word-processor and your web browser up on your screen at the same time and still have enough room to work, take a look at our Virtual-Video system. You won't believe it till you see it! With our Virtual-Video you can have 4 programs open FULL SCREEN and be working in all of them simultaneously.
Quote your Strings. If you are looking for something like white latex paint without the quotes most search engines will return information on each word in the phrase, that is; every article about paint, each web page that has the word white in it, and probably more than you ever wanted to know about latex. If, however, you quote the string, like "white latex paint" the search engine will return only those web pages that have the exact string, "white latex paint" in them.
Use the Advanced Search Feature. Most search engines, "Altavista", has an advanced search choice. By using the advanced search feature you can make use of logical arguments, like the following: Assume you were looking for house paint for the outside of your house and when you used the string, "white latex paint" the search engine returned thousands of results, many of which were about interior paint, you could change the search string to "white latex paint" AND exterior . By using an AND the search engine will only return pages that have BOTH the phrase white latex paint and the word exterior in the same page. Notice: the words/phrases you are looking for are in lower case, and the argument is in upper case.
Exclude Some Things. In the above example we found a bunch of web pages that talked about white latex paint for exterior use. Lets assume that most of the items returned were about a particular brand or manufacture that you did not want to use, or even consider, and that was brandx. Change your search string to, "white latex paint" AND exterior AND NOT brandx, the search engine will not show any hits that have the word or phrase brandx in them. Thus reducing the number of returns that you need to wade through. Notice: It is not necessary to quote single words.
Logical Arguments, are the way words or phrases relate to one another. Some search engines use a space for OR, a plus sign + for AND, a minus sign - for NOT. This can make typing a little easier, BUT, can cause problems. If you were looking for a part number or model number that had a dash as part of the number like, ABC-1234 most search engines would interpret the dash as a minus sign, returning hits that had only ABC and exclude all with 1234. To solve this dilemma, simply quote the part or model number "ABC-1234", this forces the search engine to consider the string as a whole.
Be Exact but not Specific . On your first stab at finding some information, don't make your search string to complex. A search string like, "white latex paint" AND exterior AND NOT brandx AND "five gallon buckets" AND "fast drying" would probably give you no returns. Make your first search as general as possible then sneak up on the details by modifying subsequent searches to home in on your target.
Don't be to general. "Sounds like I am counteracting my previous advice." If you are looking for a common item like the above examples of paint, and you start your search with just the single word paint you will probably get millions of hits. But if you are looking for information about a more uncommon item or topic like a new drug or rare medical condition, Etc. a single word may serve well.