Effective Searching

Effective Searching

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Section 1: Searching with Internet Provided Resources

Your ability to find the information you seek on the Internet is a function of how precise your queries are and how effectively you use search services. Poor queries return poor results; good queries return great results. Contrary to the hype surrounding "intelligent agents" and "artificial intelligence," the fact remains that search results are only as good as the query you pose and how you search. There is no silver bullet.

There are very effective ways to "structure" a query and use special operators to target the results you seek. Absent these techniques, you will spend endless hours looking at useless documents that do not contain the information you want. Or you will give up in frustration after search-click-download-reviewing long lists of documents before you find what you want.

This tutorial is organized to proceed from the basics to more advanced topics. Simple to follow examples are presented in each topic. We've written it to be a one-stop reference. Don't feel you need to work through all of the topics in one sitting. But, if you do take the time to work through this material, we guarantee you'll reap big dividends in faster and more accurate results. And, you will be on your way to earning the title of an Internet "Power Searcher."

Proceed Immediately to Tutorial Index

Documentation is appended at the end of [1 ,2]; click on a number citation reference to go directly to it.

Executive Summary: The Two-Minute Bottom Line

To illustrate some of the basic concepts and recommendations covered in this tutorial, let's say we have an interest in recent findings about new planets being discovered outside our solar system. Using the information "contained" in this statement, you can see how an effective query can be built by following these guidelines.

We'll summarize the recommendation, show how the statement is phrased, describe why it's important, and provide a pointer to the specific topic number in the tutorial that covers this recommendation. At the conclusion of the table are the topics and their titles listed by number.

Recommendation	Example	Why Important?	Topic #
1. Use nouns and objects as query keywords	planet or planets	Actions (verbs), modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, predicate subjects), and conjunctions are either "thrown away" by the search engines or too variable to be useful	6, 7, 8
2. Use 6 to 8 keywords in query	new, planet, planets, discovery, solar, system	More keywords, chosen at the appropriate "level", can reduce the universe of possible documents returned by 99% or more	8, 10
3. Truncate words to pick up singular and plural versions	planet* or discover*	Use asterisk wildcard. The wildcard tells the search engine to match all characters after it, preserving keyword slots and increasing coverage by 50% or more	9, Section 2
4. Use synonyms via the OR operator	*discover OR find**	Cover the likely different ways a concept can be described; generally avoid OR in other cases	11, Section 2
5. Combine keywords into phrases where possible	*"solar system"**	Use quotes to denote phrases. Phrases restrict results to EXACT matches; if combining terms is a natural marriage, narrows and targets results by many times	12
6. Combine 2 to 3 "concepts" in query	"solar system" "new planet" discover OR find	Triangulating on multiple query concepts narrows and targets results, generally by more than 100-to-1	20
7. Distinguish "concepts" with parentheses	("solar system") ("new planet") (discover OR find)	Nest single query "concepts" with parentheses. (Overkill for now, but good practice when first learning.) Simple way to ensure the search engines evaluate your query in the way you want, from left to right	19
8. Order "concepts" with subject first	("new planet") (discover OR find) ("solar system")	Put main subject first. Engines tend to rank documents more highly that match first terms or phrases evaluated	7, 19, 20
9. Link "concepts" with the AND operator	*("new planet") AND (discover* OR find) AND ("solar system")**	AND glues the query together. The resulting query is not overly complicated nor nested, and proper left-to-right evaluation order is ensured	14, 20, Section 2
10. Issue query to full "Boolean" search engine or metasearcher	*("new planet") AND (discover* OR find) AND ("solar system")**	Full-Boolean engines give you this control; metasearchers increase Web coverage by 3- to 4-fold	3, 35, 36, 38, Section 2

Index

Click on these topic headings to proceed to them:

Section 1: Searching with Internet Provided Resources
Executive Summary: The Two-Minute Bottom Line
Part 1: The Size of the Internet
Part 2: Internet Search Basics and Why There's a Problem: Topic 1: Status of the Internet and Searcher's Frustrations; Topic 2: Search Engine and Directory Basics; Topic 3: How Search Services Rank Documents; Topic 4: Characteristics of Searchers and What Takes Search Time
Part 3: Keywords — The Essence of the Search: Topic 5: Sample Information Problem for this Tutorial; Topic 6: Query Concepts: What, Where, When, How, Why; Topic 7: Breaking Down Your Query; Topic 8: Focus on Nouns and Objects; Topic 9: Word Stemming and Use of Wildcards; Topic 10: Finding the Right Level; Topic 11: Synonyms; Topic 12: Use of Phrases
Part 4: Boolean Basics: Topic 13: Boolean Overview; Topic 14: AND Operator; Topic 15: OR Operator
Part 5: Advanced Operators: Topic 16: NEAR Operator; Topic 17: BEFORE and AFTER Operators; Topic 18: AND NOT Operator
Part 6: Advanced Construction: Topic 19: Use of Parentheses; Topic 20: Combining Concepts for Power Searching; Topic 21: Punctuation and Capitalization; Topic 22: Multiple Queries and Query Refinements; Topic 23: Sample Information Problem Revisited
Part 7: Pitfalls to Avoid: Topic 24: Avoid Misspellings; Topic 25: Redundant Terms; Topic 26: Ignored Terms and Special Characters; Topic 27: Alternate Spellings; Topic 28: Too Many Terms, Synonyms; Topic 29: Improper Boolean or Complicated Construction
Part 8: Using Filters: Topic 30: Site Filters; Topic 31: Size Filters; Topic 32: Date Filters; Topic 33: Specialty Filters and Search Options
Part 9: Understand Your Engines: Topic 34: Some Caveats: The Dynamic Search Business; Topic 35: Duplication, Coverage and Responsiveness; Topic 36: Boolean or Not?; Topic 37: A Comparison of 100 Search Services; Topic 38: Features of the Top 10 Search Services; Topic 39: Specialty Engines; Topic 40: Some Other Services to Watch; Topic 41: Some Perplexing Behaviors
Part 10: Specialty Searches: Topic 42: Product Searches; Topic 43: Competitor Intelligence; Topic 44: Market Research; Topic 45: Finding People; Topic 46: Finding Places; Topic 47; Finding Documents; Topic 48: Finding Recent News
Part 11: Solutions and the Future of Searching: Topic 49: Ruminations on the Future of Internet Searching
Part 12: Summary and Further Information

Notes, Links and References

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