July '03 Tools

Search capabilities and results vary widely between different search engines. While the basics for searching similar, if you want to create complex queries, the finer nuances can be very different from one engine to the next. With so many search engines available, the best approach is to choose just two or three engines and learn the intricacies of each of them.

A basic search using Google...

To provide an understanding of the amazing levels and options there are to learning how to query just one particular search engine, we'll look at basic, then advanced queries in Google - the top ranked choice of search engine users.
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Let's begin by looking at the steps for a basic Google search...
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To enter a query into Google, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key (or click the Google Search button) for a list of relevant web pages. Since Google only returns web pages that contain all the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search only required adding more words to the search terms you have already entered. Your new query will return a smaller subset of the pages Google found for your original query.
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For best results, it's important to choose your search terms (or keywords) carefully. By the way, Google will check your spelling before doing a search, and if you've misspelled a word, it will offer the correct spelling.
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The fastest way to find what you need is to be as specific as possible. If you're looking for the "Acme Budget Moving Company", enter all those terms rather than just "budget movers" or "moving companies"
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If you can't seem to put together the right search query, try using words that are likely to appear on a site with the information you want. For example, the words "boxes" and "packing" would most likely appear on a moving company site.
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Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. Google will indicate if a common word has been excluded by displaying details on the results page below the search box.
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Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "acme moving", "Acme Moving", and "ACME Moving" will all return the same results.

Fine tuning your search...

You can increase the accuracy of your searches by adding Operators to fine-tune your chosen terms.
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Phrase Searches - Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes will appear together in all results exactly as you have entered them. Phrase searches are especially useful when searching for famous sayings or proper names. For example, "The early bird gets the worm".
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"OR" Searches - To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use an uppercase OR between terms. For example, to search for a home in either Texas or Montana, just type - home texas OR montana
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" + " Searches - As mentioned, Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters. If a common word is essential, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Include a space before the "+" sign.) If you wanted to search for Where's Waldo type where's +waldo
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" - " Searches - Sometimes you may want to exclude a particular word from your search. This can be done by putting a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of the term you want to avoid. (Include a space before the minus sign.) Suppose the thing you're looking for has more than one meaning - like a new mouse for your computer. You don't want sites that give you information about the rodent - or tell you where to get mice for your pet snake. To exclude these, you would type: mouse -rodent

You're ready for the Advanced section!

And now - an advanced Google search using "Advanced Operators" (There are some pretty handy tricks here!)...
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site: If you include site: in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. If you know the website you want to search but aren't sure where the information is located within that site, you can search only that domain. Just type what you're looking for followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name. For example, to search for moving tips on the Realtor.com site, enter: moving tips site:www.realtor.com (There can be no space between the "site:" and the url.)
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link: The query link: will list web pages that have links to the specified web page. For instance, link:www.realtor.com will list web pages that have links pointing to the Realtor.com homepage. (There can be no space between the "link:" and the url.)
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related: The query related: will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, related:www.realtor.com will list web pages that are similar to the Realtor.com homepage. (There can be no space between the "related:" and the url.)
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info: The query info: will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, info:www.realtor.com will show information about the Realtor.com homepage. (There can be no space between the "info:" and the url.)
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stocks: If you begin a query with the stocks: operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For example, stock: elnk yhoo will give you information about Earthlink and Yahoo stocks. (You must type the ticker symbols, not the company name and there is one space after "stock:")
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cache: The query cache: will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. Cache is the snapshot that Google took of the page as it crawled the web and the page may have changed since that time. For instance, cache:www.realtor.com will show Google's cache of the Realtor.com homepage. (There can be no space between the "cache:" and the url.) This is pretty handy if a site or page is no longer available online but you still need to access the information.

Beyond the Google web search...

As you can see, there's quite a bit more to using a search engine than meets the eye. Now that you've learned the intricacies of searching for a web site on Google, before mastering your next search engine, you might want to take a look at some of the additional services and tools offered at Google. There are many more things you can search for besides web sites. For instance...
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Google Groups - www.groups.google.com - Post questions and read comments in discussion forums.
Google Image Search - www.images.google.com - A comprehensive image search with 425 million images.
Google News - www.news.google.com - Search 4,500 continuously updated news sources.
Google University Search - www.google.com/options/universities.html - Search a specific school website.
Google Web Directory - www.directory.google.com - The web organized by topic into categories.
Google Answers - www.answers.google.com - Researchers answer questions for a fee.
Google Catalogs - www.catalogs.google.com - Search and browse mail-order catalogs online.
Google Labs - www.labs.google.com - Prototypes and projects in development by Google.
Google Wireless - www.google.com/options/wireless.html - Search Google from any number of handheld devices.