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Search Engine Tips and Tricks

Here are a couple tricks that seem (almost) universal between search engines.

Let's say you're looking for "sports cars" and all you're getting is information on baseball and football (sports). What can you do? Try some of the following:

1. Try entering:  sports +cars or sports and cars

   

   Most search engines will interpret this as meaning you only want results that have both the word "sports" and "cars" in them. Some search engines let you us the word "and" to do this as well.

    

2. You can also try to exclude terms. Let's say you still aren't getting what you want with sports cars (you still keep getting baseball info).

   Try something like: sports +cars -baseball

   

   The "-" sign tells most search engines to exclude results that have whatever word it is that has the "-" in front of it.

    

3. If the above seems too confusing, most search engines have an "advanced search" option that gives you a web-style way to help you accomplish the same thing. Instead of using "+ / -" they use drop down boxes and option buttons. It is usually easier to search this way, although it's probably faster to use steps 1 & 2.

    

4. The next thing you might try is being more specific. Instead of just sports cars, maybe use exotic sports cars. Try different combinations of search terms until you get what you're after. (Be careful with that word "exotic" though)

    

5. Also, you may want to try using quotes.

   If you type in: "sports cars"

   

   	Which Is Your Favorite?
   	Google Yahoo! AltaVista Excite LookSmart Dog Pile Other View Results

   You should only get results that match that exact phrase in that exact order. Sometimes that can narrow things down considerably.

    

6. If all else fails, try a different search engine. Links to these search engines are also available off of http://my.expedient.net.

   Google
   LookSmart
   Alta Vista
   Excite
   Dog Pile
   Yahoo

There are thousands of search engines out there and not all of them support the tips we have listed here. If you're having trouble, look for a link for search tips, search help, advanced search, or how to search. Most search engines have lots of information on how to use them successfully.

 

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