The web as , as all of us know , is a mine of information on everything under the sun , and you can find tons of resources on every imaginable topic.The real job is sifting through all the information to get what you're really looking for , and that's where search engines come into the picture.Her we'll go beyond just searching by typing a keyword and hitting "search".We'll see how you can do a better , more accurate search at some of the popular search engines.

Most search engines work on common principles , and you can use the same search method across search engines too.Some of these methods are:

Boolean expressions
Forget what is boolean.What it means is that you can use "and" , "or" , "not" , etc to make your search more specific.For example , "chocolate OR cocoa NOT recipes" will help you look for pages that contain either chocolate or cocoa , but not recipes containing them.

Search operators
You can also put symbols like + , - and "" to good use.When you enter a keyword that's more than one word - for example , peter pan - by default , most search engines search for pages that have either peter or pan.If you enter the same as "peter pan" , the word is treated as a phrase , and the search engine looks for pages where both words appear next to each other.

+ lets you specify additional words that must appear on the web page.For example , if you're looking for stuff on the legend of Peter Pan , entering "peter pan" + wendy +"tinker bell" will help.Similarly use the - sign for excluding words , for example , chocolate - recipes gets you pagea with the word chocolate but not recipes.Remember , that there should be no space between the search operator and the word that follows it , but there should be a space between the search operator that precedes it.

Wild search?
You can use an asterisk to find words that begin in the same way.For example , searching for chem* will look for documents with chemical , chemist , chemistry , etc.All search engines may not support wildcard searches.

Relevancy ranking Results displayed by most search engines are ranked according to relevancy , which is usually decided by where the word you've searched for appears - in the title of the page , in the URL , in the comment , or in the body , and how frequently it appears in a particular web page.So , when your search yields those scores of results spread across numerous pages , remember that the likelihood of finding what you're looking for decreases as you move further down the list , provided of course , that your keyword accurately reflects what you're looking for.

Other tips
Always enter words in lower case.Also , ensure that the spelling of your keword(s) is correct.Using synonymns in your search also helps.For example , if you're looking for sites on domestic cats , tou can enter cat kitten pet to get more pages.
Now , let's get down to specific search engines and see how to search there.

www.google.com
While most search engines search for pages that contain either of your keywords , Google searches for pages that contain all your keywords.So , the more keywords you enter , the better your results will be.For example , if you're looking for you daily horoscope , entering astrology daily horoscope is better than entering only one of these.Google supports boolean expressions as well as search operators , but not wildcard searches.So , if you're not sure of the exact word , enter all possible variations , with the "or" operator if required.For narrower results , you can use the Google Web Directory link - http://google.directory.com - to see a list of categories. You can search within these categories , provided you know the subject you're looking for.The advanced search at Google gives you more options like restricting your search pages within a given website , excluding pages from a particular website , restricting search pagea to a given language , etc.

www.yahoo.com
At yahoo , too its better to search within individual categories that you see on the homepage.For example , if you'd like to buy reprints of art materpieces , click on the shopping link in the business and economy category , then go to arts and crafts , and choose reproductions there.After choosing a category , tou can type your keyword in the search button , and select to search only within the category.A general search at yahoo yields results of categories , websites , and web pages that match your search.The websites results also include a link to the category that particular site was found in. So , if you find a site that's useful , you can click on the corresponding category to see related sites.

www.askjeeves.com
This is one of the simpler search engines to use.You can type in a question like "Where can I find sites on Peter Pan and Wendy?" and the search engine fetches results for you from across the web.All you must remember here is to keep your question simple and focused.Don't try to ask about too many things at the same time , because that'll give you an unwieldy number of results , none of which may match what you're looking for.

www.altavista.com
At altavista , you can search for web pages , images , audio , and video. You can use search operators and Boolean expressions.Or , you can use the power search option to make your search more specific , from language and region to where on the web page it should look for your keywords - title , text , link , URL , etc.You can select a time frame as well as whether all , any , exact , or Boolean combinations of your keyword should be included.

Another useful feature is the family filter , which you can use to block objectionable content on the web from being returned in your search results.

www.search.rediff.com
Rediff is a good search engine for India - centric information.The site recommends that you don't use Boolean expressions , search operators ,prepositions , or punctuation marks , like commas and full stops.Also ensure that there's a space between your keywords.

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