|
The
easiest way to find what you want on the net, in most
cases, is to be "vague". As weird as it
sounds, it works. The Internet has no idea what you
want, but it will make suggestions. If you do not know
the exact address to a website, you must use a search
engine. Try to to search on just the "key"
words of a particular subject. For example, typing
"cats dogs getting along" may be more
productive than typing in "what is the best way
to get a cat and dog to get along".
Search
engines can be your friend or your enemy. The key is
to find a search engine you like and learn how it
works so that you can take full advantage of its
features as well as understand what you're looking at.
Below are a few search engines you could try.
Many
people prefer www.google.com because it is very simple
yet the most featured and powerful I have seen. Even
Yahoo now utilizes the google.com search engine.
Remember when searching, you do not include a www or a
.com, .net .org..etc. Once you go to www.google.com
you simply type for example "dog grooming".
And literally thousands of web sites that have
something in common with dog grooming will be at your
fingertips. Another useful tip is to search similar
pages. If you do a search and you see a link that may
be very useful for what you were searching on, click
on the links that say "similar". Most search
engines have these links next to search results. They
will take you to more search results that are very
similar to site you requested "similar" for.
It may also be a good idea to try and spell the word
differently or use an alternative word that has the
same meaning if you get weak or negative results. If
you do know exactly what you're looking for, search
for the site by title. (And sometimes you need to use
the full title. For example, "people" is too
general if you're actually looking for "People
Magazine".) There are also certain letter
syntaxes you can use:
-
Specify
words that must appear in the results. Attach a +
in front words that must appear in result
documents. For example " apple +pie "
-
Use
quotation marks around words that are part of a
phrase. For example "great barrier reef"
-
Specify
words that should not appear in the results.
Attach a " - " in front of words that
must not appear in result documents. For example
" monty -python "
One
"big picture" tip is that it's often better
to search for categories, and not individual sites.
This is especially helpful if you don't know exactly
what you're looking for. For example, if you want a
good recipe site, search for "Recipes"
category (or categories). From there, you're bound to
find a number of good sites, all on the same subject.
Visiting categories is often easier (and more
fruitful) than just trolling through a site's
"search results" pages for individual sites.
|
