Casey Doyon

SLM 521

6-25-02

+ = Search Engine

Tips

Want help finding the information you need? Are you frustrated because you want to narrow your search down and don’t know how? Well then, here is your simple guide to conquering those search disasters. Follow these quick and easy tips to master the art of web searches. My examples are from Yahoo and Google Search Engines.

Yahoo Search Engine Site - http://search.yahoo.com/search/options?p

Google Search Engine Site - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=&btnG=Google+Search

Tip One: Type a plus (+) sign before a word.

Example: ski+resort

Result: Your search will report back sites that contain both the words ski and resorts in them.

Yahoo matched 923 sites for this search, Google matched 718,000 sites.

Tip Two: Type a minus (-) sign before a word to eliminate this word in your search

Example: ski-resorts

Results: Your search will contain sites that deal with the word ski, but will not contain the word resorts.

Yahoo matched 101 sites for this search, Google matched 334,000 sites.

Tip Three: Type an asterisk (*) sign after a word to give the plural and singular version of a word.

Example: resort*

Results: This will help broaden your search; more sites will come up with resorts then just resort alone.

Yahoo matched 7,013 sites for this search, Google matched 8,570,000 sites.

Tip Four: Type quotation (“”) marks around words that you want kept together.

Example: “ski equipment”

Results: Your search will be about ski equipment, versus that skiing and equipment are both words contained with a site in general.

Yahoo matched 17 sites for this search, Google matched 48,600 sites.

Tip Five: Type (title:) and then put the word you want after.

Example: title:careers

Results: This will give you sites that the word “careers” is contained in the title of the web page.

Yahoo matched 227 sites for this search, Google matched 1,620 sites.

Want more information on internet search tips? Check out these sites…

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm

http://www.google.com/

http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.html