The Straight Story on Search Engines

Search Help: Super Search Tips

1. Play Favorites If you choose two or three search sites to use most often, familiarize yourself with their advanced search rules. The more you use them, the better your results.

2. Specify What You Want When you're researching a product, for example, use a query that helps the search site know what you want. Try entering "Sony Mavica reviews" instead of just "Sony Mavica." The words "compare" and "buy" help, too.

3. Quote Me Putting quotation marks around a search phrase often works magic. For example, if you include quotation marks when you search for the historian "Studs Terkel," you will avoid getting listings for cufflinks or building materials.

4. Be a Task Master You can often locate what you want by entering a task into the search field. Try typing in "update my social security" or "File my taxes," say.

5. Brush Up on Boolean Try the Boolean command AND first, to see links with all search terms, as in Intel AND memory. Go to Danny Sullivan's Boolean tips.

6. Make a Date If you want links that relate to a particular time, include the date or year in quotation marks. Example: "Olympics and 2002."

7. Learn Your Lingo If you're searching for specialized material, make a note of the specific phrases that others use in the field. For example, a fundraiser who often researches potential donors' biographies tells us that the quickest search is often "John Smith" combined with "honorary degree."

8. Think Before You Click Avoid wasting time on irrelevant sites and pages. Scan the search results blurb for the context in which your terms were used, the URL, the identity of the publisher, and the date (if available).

9. Ask the Expert Web Savvy columnist Brad Grimes says that you can often save time by going to an expert. Got a question about wine? Head to Wine Spectator, for example, instead of going to Google or Yahoo.

10. Quit It, Already It's important to know when to stop Web searching, says pundit Danny Sullivan. Depending on your query, sometimes it might be faster to pick up the phone.