NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

1.

The first rule is to make sure you know how the search engine you are using ranks its results. The reason this is important is that many search engines rank sites that pay them higher than what could be more relevant sites which haven't forked over so much money (or any money). Personally, I use www.google.com (which at least as the decency to put its pay sites off to the side in a clearly marked area) as it ranks sites by how many links they get, and how many links come from them - this is a pretty effective way of ranking a site by popularity. This means that you will hopefully get a more valid site that suits your need on the first couple of pages of search results.

2.

Check your spelling and capitalisation, just like your English teacher told you. That said, many search engines like Google will try and double guess you and offer alternate searches if you mess up your spelling.

3.

Most search engines nowadays let you use commands such as " ", +, and - in your search. These are very valuable tools: - The double quotes " " work to enclose a phrase so that the search engine knows that all the words within double quotes must be found in the results it gives you, in the same order. For example, if you were to search for <anti-war protest images>, you would get all the pages that mention 'anti-war', all the pages that mention 'protest', and on top of that all the pages that mention 'images'. If you search for "anti-war protest images" you will only get pages that have all these words combined.

The + and the - commands work in similar ways to the " " but are in some ways much more powerful. For example, if I wanted to search for information on Greenpeace and the anti-war effort, but didn't want any information on saving whales then I could try this search string: Greenpeace +anti-war -whales. That would hopefully give me the information I wanted.
So in summary, if you really want some sort of information put a + in front of the word and if you don't want a certain piece of information put a - in front of the word. It is important to note that the + or - sign is placed directly in front of the word with no space between it and the word in question e.g. -windows

4.

If things don't work out straight away, don't panic. Relax, take a deep breath.

5.

Start your searches specific and then go broader if you don't get what you want straight away. For example, if I can't find what I am looking for when I search for "Culture Jamming Images" (notice the use of " " to search for a whole phrase) I might want to try just "Culture Jamming" and then if that doesn't get me anywhere I could then just try Jamming.

6.

If you are not getting anywhere with the search, try using alternate words that have the same or similar meanings (time to whip out the thesaurus), or try using related topics to the topic you really want information on. For example, if I was looking for "Culture Jamming" and getting nowhere I could try "Adbusting" as a word with a similar meaning. Or I could try related topics such as "anti-globalization"

7.

When browsing the results your search has produced, it can be a good idea to open any new pages in new windows (OmniWeb allows you to open new windows behind the current - search - window: www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/) or tabs (Camino: www.mozilla.org/projects/camino/). While this may add a little bit to your screen clutter, it saves a lot of backtracking and re-searching as you can always just go back to your original window/tab and your search results.

8.

If you do find a good site in during your search, be sure to see if they have a 'links' section because, as a rule, good sites can often point you in the direction of other good sites (though once again be careful of links that are nothing more than advertising).

9

Take your time, browse, and don't let it get to you.

10.

Finally, if you need more help, try searching for 'search tips' - there are about a gazillion sites out there, and most search engines have a help section themselves.