Effective Internet Searching

Craig Ellison

Searching the Internet can be easy if you know some basic search functions. The following tutorial will describe some effective ways of searching the Internet. This tutorial will use techniques that work with Google.

1.) Search All Words

Using the * after a word will pull up all variations of that word. For example, if you type hack* every website with some variation of that word will appear. Websites with the words hack, hacking, hacker, hackers will appear.

Instructions

Try this out. Go to Google and type in hack*. See what you get

2.) Use Minus (-)

Use the minus sign to list words that should not appear in the search results. The example below would look for website that talk about Georgia Bulldogs and the word football should not appear. Be sure to put a space after the first words.

Instructions

Try it out. See if it really works. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it still pulls up websites with the word football in the pages. Use the Georgia Bulldogs example above.

3.) Search using a (+) sign

This technique will make sure that the word following the plus sign will be include in the search results. Look at the example below:

Instructions

Try typing in a word using the plus sign and see what kind of results you receive. Try cars +sounds. ( Make sure to put a space after the first word only.)

4.) Search using a Phrase

This is the technique that produces the best results when I am searching the web. Put parenthesis around a word or group of words will pull up websites that contain that exact string of words.

Instructions

Check it out! Go to Google and type in the phrase Georgia Bulldogs and see how many results you receive. Now type in “Georgia Bulldogs” and see how many results you receive. What happens? Which has more results? Which is the most effective for research.