Web Browsing Tutorial

Performing a Web Search

Because a Web search can return with nothing or, the other extreme, thousands of links to pages, learning how to refine your search is one of the most important skills you can master. In this section, you'll learn how to use advanced search techniques such as keyword variations and search operators, and how to use Google's custom selection features to find what you're looking for.

 
Choosing Keywords

Keywords are summary words that give a search engine hints about what you want to find.

Say you're looking for information about a car. The table below (Keyword Variations) shows a breakdown of keywords you might type in, and the results you might expect. Notice that as the keywords become more specific, the results become more specific as well.

Taking that example a bit further, if you wanted to buy a used Toyota Prius in your area, you might use the keywords "Prius," the name of your city, and "for sale."

If you don't get the results you are looking for, try again using different or additional keywords.

Advanced Search Techniques

The Google search engine allows you to be as simple or as complicated as you want with your search.

With Google, you can increase the accuracy of your results by adding search operators that can help specify how to use your keywords in a search.

Here are some examples of how to use some of the search operators Google supports:

By default, Google only returns pages that include all of your keywords. There is no need to include AND between them. But, keep in mind: the order they are typed will affect the results, so put the most important word first.

Sometimes what you're searching for has more than one meaning. For example, "model" can refer to a person or the style or design of an item. You can exclude a keyword by putting a minus sign immediately in front of a keyword. (Be sure to include a space before the minus (-) sign.) To find pages about models that do not contain the word "fashion," type: model -fashion .

Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes (") will appear together in the results exactly as you typed them.

Using the uppercase word "OR" between keywords tells Google to show you Web pages that contain any combination of the keywords. For example, Toyota OR Camry delivers any pages related to Toyotas or Camrys. Visit www.google.com/help/operators.html for a complete list of the special operators Google supports.

If you know the Web site you want to search, but you aren't sure where the information is located, you can use Google to search only that site. To do so, type the keywords you're looking for followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name. For example, to find information on web hosting on E-List.Net's Web site, type: Web Hosting: www.E-List.Net

You can also learn how to use other search features, like the following, at Google :

• Language: Specify which language you want your results in.

• Date: Specify your results to the past three, six, or twelve months.

• Occurrences: Specify where your keywords occur on the page: anywhere, in the title, or in the Web address.

• Domains: Search only a specific Web site, or exclude a site from your search.

• SafeSearch: Google's SafeSearch screens for sites that contain explicit content and eliminates them from your results.

Search by Category

The Google Web Directory (located at www.directory.google.com ) lets you look for a Web site by clicking through categories, rather than typing keywords, so it's a good place to start if you're not sure what keywords to use.

For example, searching for Prius within the Science category of the Google Web Directory returns with pages about the environment, while searching for Prius within the Recreation > Autos category returns only pages about the Toyota Prius.

Searching within a category allows you to quickly narrow your search to only pages that are relevant to you.

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