(1) Generally speaking; the more specific your search query is the closer to your intended result you will become:  For instance; if you only type in the word THEATRES as your query, you will receive a whole host of listed results.  If you; however, type the query THEATRES IN BALTIMORE, only those results containing theatres located in Baltimore will be listed.

(2)  To narrow your search results even further you can locate web pages that include all of the words  in your query by adding a + sign.  An example would be:  THEATRES + OPERA + BALTIMORE.  By doing this, you have told the search engine to only list those web pages that contain all of the elements in your query.  The results for this example would be theatres that involve opera and Baltimore.

(3)  You can also use the + sign to narrow your search even more by adding more words to your search query.  For example:  THEATRES + OPERA + MUSICALS + BALTIMORE.  The results of which would include theatres that involve opera and musicals and Baltimore.

(4)  Quotation marks allow you to inform the search engine to find only those web pages that list the terms of your search query in exactly the same order.  Lets say you wanted to find directions to the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore.  A suggested query would be "LYRIC DIRECTIONS".   If you use this feature; however, be sure to limit the words as much as possible.  I found this feature difficult to use when I typed three or more words.  For example, at first I tried "LYRIC THEATRE DIRECTIONS" and received nothing.  

(5)  In contrast, you can use the - sign to tell your search engine to eliminate web pages that contain certain information.  If you, for example, wanted to find information on Michael Jackson, but did not want any of his legal problems to be included in the resulting web page listings, you could present your query as MICHAEL JACKSON -ALLEGATIONS.  By using the - sign, the list of results would not include his  legal battles.  Make sure you put the  - sign just in front of the word that represents the material you want excluded.  I initially typed my query as MICHAEL JACKSON - ALLEGATIONS and all I received were web pages that included the term allegations!  It took me way to long to figure this out!!!