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5 Essential Searching Tips
(Not all of these will work on all search engines.)
- Be specific...general
words or ideas find thousand of web sites SO use the most specific
words you can think of that describe your topic.
For
example: use sport utility vehicles instead
of trucks.
- Use quotes around
phrases or names. This will find only those sites that have
the words listed in that exact order.
For
example: enter "death penalty" or enter "Austin
Community College"
- Use AND, OR,
NOT (Boolean operators) to search for web pages containing
the specific words and concepts you want.
- AND
lets you combine ideas and get more specific results.
For example: environment AND texas will get
results that mention both of these topics.
- OR
will find pages containing at least one of the words searched.
Use OR when searching for keywords that have the same meaning.
For example: "death penalty" OR "capital
punishment"
-
NOT will skip pages that contain unwanted information
that might otherwise show up.
For example: If you wanted information on the planet Saturn,
use saturn NOT automobile
- Truncate your keywords.
Go to the "root" part of the word and insert a symbol
(often an asterisk *). This will expand your search to include
words with multiple endings.
For
example: politic*
will find the words politics, politician and
political
- Learn the search
features of at least one search engine really well, including
the advanced search tips. This will help you be a more effective
searcher and save you lots of time in the long run.
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