Searching the World Wide Web

How Do I Search?
Once you get connected to the Internet, you need to know how to find the Web sites and newsgroups that interest you. You may find, as many people do, that its fun just to wander—or surf—from site to site, going wherever the links take you. But if you want to find something specific and find it as soon as possible, you need to use a search engine. Here are some tips on searching:

Finding the needle in the internet haystack
A search engine is a service that indexes, organizes, and often rates and reviews Web sites. It helps you find the needle-that one Web site you've got to see-in the Internet haystack. Different search engines work in different ways.

• Some rely on people to maintain a catalog of Web sites or pages.
• Some use software to identify key information on sites across the Internet.
• Some combine both types of service.

So when you search their engine for "entertainment," you're bound to get different results.

Which one should I use?
No search engine keeps track of all the content on the Internet. Even the major search engines—such as Google, Infoseek, Lycos, and Yahoo!—won't give you everything. (Some studies indicate that even the top search engines find less than half of what's really out there!) You can try several major search engines by visiting an all-in-one search site.

Here's a quick introduction to some of the major search engines:

• Google. A hybrid search engine, Google fulfills the traditional search engine definition (it is always visiting Web sites and cataloging them using a software program).
• Yahoo! This is actually a directory and a search engine, meaning humans compile and categorize the sites it searches. So you may get fewer results. But Yahoo! makes it easy to search for sites by category and to continue your search using a search engine.
• Bing. A web search engine from Microsoft online since June 3, 2009. Bing powered searches has a higher "success rate" compared to Google, with more users clicking on the resulting links.

Major search sites generally provide more than a search engine for finding Web sites. They also allow you to look up information such as recent news stories, newsgroup postings, reference material (such as dictionary entries and maps), and e-mail addresses, street addresses, and telephone numbers of business and individuals.

Here are two guidelines for picking a search engine:

• If you're looking for a broad, common topic, such as how to buy a personal computer, use a search engine that tends to give you fewer results of higher quality (usually the type that relies on people to catalog sites), such as Yahoo!
• If you're looking for a rare topic, such as 19th-century Hungarian authors, use a site that may be less discriminate but yields more results (usually the type compiled by a software program), such as Excite.

 
Tips for searching
Whatever search engine you use, these tips will help you find what you're looking for.

General searching

Use more than one search engine.
No search engine indexes all Web sites and Web pages. So if your first search doesn't produce the results you wanted, try searching with at least one other searching engine.

Read the "About" page.
Many search engines have a link that leads to detailed information about how the search engine compiles and searches through information and how to get the best results from it. Reading this page can save you a lot of time and headaches. Also, visit search engine home page links with names like "How To," "Search Help," and "Advanced Search" for searching tips.

Get targeted results by being specific.
The more specific your search word, the more targeted your search results will be. If you search for the words Labrador retriever, for example, rather than the word dog, your search will yield fewer sites, but they will be targeted to the type of dog that interests you.

Get more results by being general.
If your search word is too specific, your search may yield few or no results. To get more results, try searching for a related word that is more general.

Define your search using Boolean operators.
The major search engines let you select whether to search for the exact phrase you typed, all the words in the phrase but not necessarily together, any of the words in a phrase, and so on. A few search engines do not give you such options. In this case, you can define the search yourself by adding one or more words or symbols to your search topic.

• AND. To search for two (or more) terms on the same page: Type the word AND between the terms. (Example: sea AND kayak.) Or put a plus sign right before the second term. (Example: sea +kayak.)
• OR. To search for either of two (or more) terms on the same page: Type the word OR between the terms. (Example: kayak OR canoe.)
• AND NOT. To search for pages that include the first term and not the second: Type the words AND NOT between the terms. (Example: kayak AND NOT whitewater.) Or put a minus sign right before the second term. (Example: kayak -whitewater.)
• "". To search for an exact phrase: Enclose the phrase in quotation marks. (Example: "sea kayak rental".)
• (). To group parts of your search: Enclose them in parentheses. (Example: kayak AND (gear OR equipment). This returns pages with both the words kayak and gear or with both the words kayak and equipment.)
• *. To search for various forms of a word: Add an asterisk to the end of the word. (Example: kayak*. This returns pages with the words kayak, kayaks, kayaked, kayaking, and so on.)

Search the Internet with a search engine—using Internet Explorer

1. On the toolbar, click the Search button.
2. In the Search bar that appears in the left pane of your Internet Explorer window, choose your preferred search engine from the drop-down list in the box labeled Select provider.
3. Depending on the search engine you've chosen, you may now have some options for configuring your search. Make your selections, or accept the default selections.
4. In the appropriate text box, type the word or phrase you're looking for, and then click Search, Submit, or Go Get It, depending on the search engine.
5. The search results appear in the list within the Search bar. Click on any link to open the associated Web page in the right pane of your Internet Explorer window.
6. Any time you want to pursue another link from the search results, click it. The new Web page will open in the right pane.
7. To hide the Search bar, click the Search button on the toolbar again.

Search the Internet from the Address bar—using Internet Explorer

• In the Address bar, type find followed by a space and the word or phrase you want to find. For example, type Go Labrador retriever.
• In the list of search results, click a link to display the Web page.
  Note: This AutoSearch feature uses only one search service to find information.

Search for text on the current Web page—using Internet Explorer

1. On the Edit menu, click Find (on this page).
2. Type the text you want to find.
3. Change any settings as needed.
4. Click Find Next.
    

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