Useful Search Techniques
The key to efficient searching is to construct an appropriate search statement by choosing and combining search terms. You will develop your skills in this with practice. Here are some tips from experienced Internet searchers.
- Enter what you consider to be the most important search terms first. For example, rover cars rather than cars rover
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Enter rover cars and cars rover into a search engine and compare the first 20 sites listed. You will find the results differ, although some sites appear in the top 20 listed in both searches. rover cars is more likely to lead to sites which deal solely with Rovers. |
- Enter phrases in quotes (or the equivalent syntax as specific by the search engine).
Quotes instigate a search for the exact phrase eg: "internet search techniques" will search only for these three words next to each other and in this order. Without quotes, your search will also look for all three words but they could be anywhere in the document eg: internet search techniques could lead to sites discussing police search techniques for suspected internet crime.
- If you are specifically seeking UK information, either ask to search UK sites only (if the search engine permits this) or add uk as a search term
- Do not limit yourself to what we, as library staff, think of as indexing terms. Searching the Internet is different from consulting a printed index. So enter as search terms words that you would expect to find in the text. For example, in a search on teenage health problems, you might use search terms such as bulimia, anorexia, or eating disorder.
Let's look now at some More useful search techniques ...
