Better Internet Searching
Posted on 13. Nov, 2008 by Mike Halsey in internet
It can be very difficult to find the information we need on something as vast as the internet. How do you make better use of it and how can you find the information you need more quickly and efficiently?
There are many ways you can improve your web searches. For those of you familiar with Boolean Logic there are terms such as AND and OR that can be used with some search engines. However for the rest of us there are three little symbols that can help. “, + and -.
In the example below (you can click on the image to view it full size) I’m searching for record keeping in the NHS. Here the search engine, in this case Google, will treat each of the words individually and has returned a total of 225,000 articles and web pages that contain those words. It doesn’t specify that the words have to be in a certain order, or even that the words must be included in the search results.
If I want to make sure that the results I get are really about record keeping in the NHS I can put inverted commas “ around my search query. This will treat it as a quote instead and, as you’ll see in the example below this has immediately reduced the number of related articles and web pages to only 135.
You can refine your searches further still by using the + and - symbols as in the example below. The use of these characters will deliberately include or exclude words or, if they’re included in quotes as before, whole phrases from your search.
Putting a plus sign in front of a search term will give you search results where that term MUST be in every link. Using the minus sign will ensure that the term is EXCLUDED form every link. In this example, we’re doing a search for the band Simply Red but don’t want any information about concerts.
All search engines will also have an Advanced Search facility that will give you even more control over your searching. I find however that the simple use of “, + and - will help you find what you’re looking for far more quickly and easily that you can without them.
it with others, or 
