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How to Search the Web and Find What you Want Fast!
by Robin Houghton
Searching the web can be frustrating and time-wasting. Learn the secrets of fast, successful web searches every time. No technical knowledge required!
If there's one thing that frustrates people more than anything, it's not being able to find the information they are looking for on the internet. We are told all the time about what a wonderful, free resource the internet is - billions of webpages out there, all the information you could ever want on just about every subject - yes, but how on earth do you find it?
The answer is to search. "Yes!" I hear you saying, "That's what I do! But I always seem to end up with a lot of useless, irrelevant search results!" My husband remarks that he can search for something for an hour with no luck, but when I have a go I can sometimes find what he wants within a few minutes. How can that be? Well, for one, the internet is my business. Nevertheless, there are a number of tricks you can learn that will help you spend less time searching and more time finding the stuff you want. It's also helpful to know a few basics about how searches work. So here we go - four facts that will help you understand how searches work, and five tips to help you search quickly, accurately and successfully. And don't worry, no technical knowledge is required!
Fact number 1: Computers are stupid. The internet is basically a network of computers, which ‘talk' to one another in the only way they know how: in a code consisting of zeros and ones. There's no grey area, and they are incapable of thought. Imagine when you search it's a game of twenty questions. You have to phrase the question so that the answer is either yes or no. There's no possibility of eliciting a ‘well, maybe', ‘no, but…' or ‘could you be more specific?'. The better your questions (or in this case the terms you are searching for), the quicker you will get to the answer.
Fact number 2: The content of websites only ‘means' something to humans. Websites are created and maintained by humans, for humans. Instead of zeros and ones we are able to look at images, text and colour. While the computer interprets code dispassionately, we are busy finding meaning and content. But when a search engine searches, words mean nothing. That's why you can search for ‘Bills Produce Store' and you get a webpage entitled ‘Bill Writer - Produce Bills and Statements in seconds'. Things have got better since search companies have developed their own directories, or at least included results from directories. Which brings me to the next point - when is a search engine a directory, and when is it not?
Fact number 3: Search engines are not the same as web directories. Directories are maintained by humans who make the decisions about how to categorise and describe websites. A directory is a bit like a library - you find what you are looking for by ‘drilling down' to the shelf you want - Fiction/Childrens/Author D/Roald Dahl. Or on an internet directory you can save time by simply putting ‘Roald Dahl' into the search box and you might be taken straight there. A search engine, on the other hand, employs automated ‘robots' (little computer programs) that scour the web for the words you have specified and allocate ‘relevance' to a site based on the occurrence of those words.
Thankfully, most search sites now incorporate both directory (human edited) and search engine (automated) results when you search. This is the reason I prefer to refer to them as search sites.
The most common searches on the internet are at big search sites like AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. If you use one of these regularly, the reason is probably because it is your Internet Service Provider's homepage. However, the most popular search site is still Google, a company which specialises purely in search services.
Fact number 4: The majority of websites are invisible. By ‘invisible', I mean that you will not find them by going to a search site, typing in words, and telling the computer to go fetch. That's because the site you want may be number 1,248 on a list of sites that come up, and nobody is going to hit the ‘next results' button a hundred and twenty times. If what you're looking for is not there within the first ten results, you will probably search again with different words. Those other sites (numbers 11 to 1,248) are practically invisible.
Why do some websites get found, and others not? I already mentioned that search engines (those robots roaming the web) are looking at one thing: words. Not word meanings, not subjects, not pretty pictures, but words. Think of it like a points system. A website gets points for various things to do with words, for example, the number of times a word occurs on the page, its size, position, its relation to other words, whether it is also used in the page title or the name of any images. On the other hand, the robots are ‘wise' to certain tricks. By this of course I mean that the people who write the robot programs now put in certain rules aimed at penalising websites which try to achieve high search rankings by underhand methods.
If this is all news to you, you're probably thinking it sounds pathetic! Nevertheless, for many companies, being ‘visible' in web searches is a serious business. Most search sites allow companies to pay for a listing - those are the results you see at the top of each search, or highlighted on the page in some way. Of course, the paid-for listings aren't necessarily the most relevant to you … so always look further down the page, particularly if you are not looking for a commercial website.
Search Tip number 1: Choose your search words carefully. Be specific: combine two words that narrow down your search. If you were only looking for UK sites, for example, you should add ‘UK' to your search term. If you are looking for something to buy, as opposed to just information, the word ‘buy' works wonders. If your search term is ambiguous, add another contextual word. Leave out words like ‘and', ‘with', or ‘of' - they will just be ignored. If your search term is a phrase, quotation, real name or title, enclose it in quote marks.
If at first your search appears fruitless, just tweak your search words and search again. Don't bother looking past the 20th result - try again, and don't give up right away!
Search Tip number 2: Don't always use the same search site. It's easy to always use the same search site. I know, I do it myself, relying too much on Google. You will find that different search sites return different results. They all have their own robots, ranking sites on various criteria (which are always evolving), and they are ‘fed' by different directories. So try another search site for a change. Or go to a ‘meta' search site: for example, Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com) combines results from nine of the major search sites.
Search Tip number 3: Don't get distracted. We've all been there - suddenly, something looks interesting - it's not what we were looking for, but perhaps we'll just have a peek … before you know it, half an hour has passed and you are deep into the web. When I'm introducing people to the internet for the first time, I tell them to always start a surfing session with a list of what they want to do before going online. The internet eats time. It's also one of the great joys of the web that you can jump from website to website and follow your thoughts wherever they want to go - so beware!
Search Tip number 4: Follow relevant links from related sites. Having just warned you about the danger of following links, there are occasions when it's a good idea because it can lead to ‘more like this'. Go to a site's ‘links' page to start with. Informational sites, for example, or sites on a specific theme run by enthusiasts, campaigners and experts, are often doorways into a whole community of interest that you may not even knew existed. This is what the internet does really well - providing people with the means and the motivation to talk with like-minded others around the world. Contrary to what some national papers would have us believe, most internet chat rooms and online forums are filled with people arguing passionately about whether Barry Manilow's next tour will be his last, or which bit of computer code is most effective at killing pop-up adverts.
Search Tip number 5: Bookmark the sites you want to return to. Finally - you find the perfect site, perhaps you can't remember how. You searched for something, then followed a link, then went back and tried another … the answer is to make a note of the site so that you can go back to it. I don't mean writing down the address - some web addresses are so long, and it's just too easy to misplace a hyphen or a dot. No, thankfully you can get your computer to remember a site, and it's very easy to do.
If you use Internet Explorer to browse the web, look for the word ‘Favorites' on the menu at the top of the page. When you click on this, you will see ‘Add to Favorites'. At this stage you either just click on ‘OK', and the site will be added to your list, or once you get really organised you can create folders to put them in. To return to the site, click on Favorites again, and you will see the site listed. Click on the title - and you will go back to your bookmarked site. If you use Netscape as your browser, the principle is the same, except it's called ‘Bookmarks' rather than ‘Favorites.'
About the Author
Robin Houghton advises small businesses and non-profits on how to make the most of their marketing budget, specialising in online. With a masters degree in Digital Media, she also writes for a variety of offline and online media.
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