Search Tips Elective

Is searching the Internet confusing or frustrating? Do your searches come up with too many unwanted sites? Want to know how to find exactly what you search for? Searching the Internet can consume valuable time. Tips for searching will help narrow down the list of sites found. These tips will also make the list more accurate. I have provided a list of tips to use. After each tip is an activity for you to complete. Type in the words, phrases, and symbols to find a more accurate, narrow search.

Tip One: Be specific.

Excluding words can make the search wider.

Activity:

Type in: 2003 Volkswagen Beetle convertible

Yahoo matches: 29,300

Google matches: 37,500

Tip Two: Type + before a word.

This tip finds pages that have all the words entered, not just some of the words.

Activity:

Type in: +impressionism +monet

Yahoo matches: 40,900

Google matches: 45,300

Tip Three: Type - before a word.

This takes information away from your search. This finds information on a subject but eliminates information that you do not need.

Activity:

Type in: impressionism -monet

Yahoo matches: 126,000

Google matches: 153,000

Tip Four: Use “” around your term.

Using quotation marks keeps the words together during the search making it a narrow search.

Activity:

Type in: “Monet: Impression”

Yahoo matches: 1,180

Google matches: 1,480

Tip Five: Combine symbols + “” - according to what you want added, taken away, or narrowed down.

This condenses your search even more. It will exclude and include information according to the symbols.

Activity:

Type in: “Monet” -impressionism +biography

Yahoo matches: 17,000

Google matches: 25,000

Tip Six: Type * after a word.

This makes the plural or singular version of the word.

Activity:

Type in: monet impression*

Yahoo matches: 19,400

Google matches: 23,700

Tip Seven: Type title: then the word after it.

By doing this, the engine searches for that word in the title of the web page. If you did not include this tip, the engine would have searched for the word anywhere on the web page.

Activity:

Type in: title: monet impression

Yahoo matches: 6,720

Google matches: 7,830