Advanced Surfing 
Tips & Tricks: Searching
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Search Engines
Not all search engines are the same and no single search engine
is the best choice for all of your searches. Among search engines there is a wide range of differences. If you are not familiar with your search engine's capabilities, make some time and learn about it.
| AltaVista | Ask Jeeves | Beaucoup | Deja |
| DogPile | Excite | FindFAST | Google |
| HotBot | LookSmart | MetaFind | Northern Light |
| Open Directory Project | Research-It | whatis?com | Yahoo |
How hard can it be?
Let's try a small experiment.
- First, go to any page on the Web.
- Pick out several key words on the page.
- Now, go to your favorite search engine.
- Key in the terms you selected from the Web page to search for your page.
- Press GO, or however you tell your engine to start searching
- Did you find your Web in the 'hits' list?
If this exercise raised a few doubts about your searching assumptions, it was supposed to! Read on...
Learning more about searching
I used to have a couple search tips here, but the list got too long. I moved the tips to another set of pages. In fact, I have a complete presentation just on searching.
I suggest you spend 1 or 2 hours learning about how searching and more importantly, 'finding', happens on the Internet. On to Michael's Internet Finding Tips.
- see a list of recommeded search engines
- compare search syntax
- learn how to develop a search strategy
- develop 'HIT' smarts
- recognize often neglected search tools
If you do much searching at all, take the time to learn about the 'HOW TO' aspects.
