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Some personal evaluation is always required. There
are many search engines out there, and more are added each day. The first
question you’ll face is which one to use. Each has a benefit, each has
deficiencies. You will quickly find out which ones you like the best after
searching through endless search results. Google.com for example is a great
general search engine, it will find most concepts and pages that explain what
you need to know, you may find some guys page in Amsterdam that briefly comments
on your topic as well but the top ten results are usually pretty accurate. I’ll
get to how to use Google.com and other pages more efficiently later in this
article. Wikipedia.org is another great website for looking up factual data
only. If you have a question about the Russian revolution, or what bacteria are,
here’s where you’ll find your answer. Which site you end up using consistently
is up to you, next I’ll tell you which sites not to use.
We all know that the internet is filled with both
useful data and useless data, most of us know it is also full of harmful data.
Many websites will place trojans, worms, and viruses on your computer if you let
them. Stay away from illegal downloads, porn and extreme violence and you should
be safe, but there are some of these concerns with search engines as well. Some
things to avoid:
If you get more than the occasional popup, dump
that site. One popup every other visit or so is probably just a way for the site
creator to make some cash, no harm in that. Some sites however flood your screen
with multiple popups, or one every time you click anything. These sites may be
flooding you in hopes of you accidentally clicking the wrong thing at the wrong
time and downloading something nasty. You may not even know it’s there, but they
do and whatever they’re doing it can’t be good for you.
If the results come back as porn, no matter
what you search for, you don’t want that, well maybe you do.
The last type of site I suggest you avoid are
sites such as askjeeves.com, these sites are quality sites in that they don’t
have malicious intents. If you use the tips I’ll show you next, you just won’t
have a use for sites like askjeeves.com. AskJeeves.com uses other search engines
and finds results for you. A great idea for those who are inadequate at
searching for themselves, and there is no shame in that, most people are like
that. You will no longer need this feature as you will be an expert searcher in
a couple more paragraphs.
There are a number of techniques that I use
quite successfully to find information, and none of them include breaking thumbs
or knees.
The first is put your search in quotes (or
search for the exact phrase). You may not get any hits at all, but if you get
some they should pretty much be exactly what you’re looking for. Of course this
tip won’t always be useful, especially if you’re searching for a single word. If
I’m searching for something specific, like “my hard drive is making noise”, I
always search for the phrase I want in quotes first. If that doesn’t work I
either remove the quotes, or shorten the phrase. Results typically include
message boards when you search with quotes, but they are a great source of
information, links and all!
Message boards are fantastic, you’ll often be
able to find someone who had the same problem, or wanted the same information as
you, but he posted a question three months ago and now there are ten answers.
You get the same information as him, but now, not in three months. Often message
boards will have links to sites that answer your question as well, that way you
don’t have to rely on trusting some guy on the internet, like me.
Think outside the box when entering your search
terms. Try the obvious first, but if you find yourself stumped, expand your
search to include things that are related to what you want to know. For example
if you’re interested in knowing more about General Lee, but all you can find
when you search for it is the Dukes of Hazard, try searching for the Civil War,
or army generals. This is the single most important skill to have when searching
for obscure information.
The easiest way to search for something is to
let someone else search for it. There are sites such as askipedia.com that will
do this for free. It won’t be as quick as doing it yourself, they have a 24 hour
guarantee, but it will be much easier. You won’t have to do much work at all,
and they may come up with better results anyway.
Practice makes perfect so get out there and
experiment. Search of a specific topic and see how many different searches will
return the same results, you’ll be surprised.
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