How do you like that title? I am ready for Scattergories now! What? You don’t know what Scattergories is? Look it up. 
Speaking of search, here are a few tips that might help you find whatever you are looking for more quickly. If you are still having trouble after reading this, give me a call and I will help you find it.
1. Versus - Use the word versus (as in dog versus cat). You can use the word when you are trying to figure out which of two options is better, but you can also use it to find competitors. If you want to find Wal-mart’s best known (if not top) competitor, type Wal-mart versus in your favorite search engine. Even if you are not looking for alternatives the word versus can get you to a good review.
2. Like and similar – The words like and similar give you good reviews also. They are also the best words for finding alternatives to software. Do not tolerate bad software. All software has bugs, but you have the option to choose which bugs you want. If you don’t like Google Blogger, search for like Blogger or similar to Blogger. The actual sites you find will not be worth much but you will find a list of other blogging systems. Pick one and give it a try. This can be used with just about any noun. If you know one thing in a category but you want to find more, give this a try.
3. Topic specific search sites - Google, Yahoo, Live and similar sites (note how I just used the word similar) do a good job of finding a lot of sites that at least mention the topic you are looking for, but often the best place to start your search is with a good reference site. If you need a quick definition and high-level overview, try Wikipedia. If you are looking for free Mac software, try sites like freemacware.com or opensourcemac.org (note use of the word like ).
If you are searching in the same topic frequently start to notice which sites are frequently helpful. If the site has a search box and appears to have a lot of information on your topic, try starting your research with that site’s search box. If you are lucky you might find a search engine that is specific to your topic. This narrows your search so you can find your answer faster.
4. Blogs - Many questions that I come across daily have been answered a week earlier on a blog that I read. The best search results are the ones that find you, without you even having to look for them. Obviously this only works if the blogs you subscribe to are relevent to your work, school or whatever you search for.
Whenever you find an answer on a website, check to see if the site has an RSS feed (aka Atom feed, syndicate, subscribe, or just feed). This is often indicated with an orange icon. If the site does have a feed, take a minute to see if the site usually discusses stuff that is relevant to you. If it does, subscribe.
5. Be specific - Around 90% of all searches on the web are one word searches. Typing just one word may seem easier but if you are looking for something that is the color blue you are going to have to skip past all the sites about a dog named blue, and a bunch of sad people, and some really sad music. Be specific and type more words. You will get better results without the clutter.
6. Block irrelevant words. - Words often have multiple meanings and usages. I just mentioned blue. Another would be the board-game called “Life”. If you are specific and search for the game of life, you are still going to get something about Conway (I am not sure what that is, but it is not the game I am looking for). You can hide all the irrelevant results by typing -Conway at the end of your search phrase. The minus sign (hyphen) blocks the “rabbit trail” words so that you can see the other results.
7. Exact phrases - If you know a line from a song or an exact quote from a public speaker or any other exact phrase, put your search in quotes. This will pull up only exact quote not a list of every site that uses the search words in any order. For example, if you want to know who said “a penny saved is a penny earned”, type it in quotes.
There are quite a few more tips I could mention but several are specific to certain types of searches or involve remembering odd syntax rules, but hopefully the simple steps will help you get more useful results more quickly.
Related posts:
Ok, so here’s my first comment to my first visit to Pookey’s blog. Luke, as the resident engineer, I feel obliged to mention the engineer’s search: the boolean search. A great explanation is here if you want to direct blog readers to it. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2155991
good luck finding a search engine that makes it easy, but for completeness’ sake. Is this the kind of comment the kind of comment I’m supposed to leave?
Brett,
Thanks for commenting! There are no “rules” for commenting, but yes your comment was quite relevant. Anytime you want to agree, disagree, clarify, or add additional information, a comment is a great way to do it.