I fully believe that any question you have, that is answerable by someone, is probably answered somewhere on the internet. And I feel the best way to find that, is Google. Using the tips below should help you find what your looking for.
- Be specific and reduce the number of results
Since Google’s index is extremely large, in order to find what your looking for, you’ll need a way to drastically reduce the amount of results. Be very specific, if you are having car problems, don’t just search for ‘my car won’t start’, you should search for ‘2003 ford focus passenger seat leaking’. If you get little or no results, try being slightly less specific. Each step being less specific will usually get you to what your looking for faster than searching a general phrase, and reading each result in turn realizing that it’s not what you were looking for. - Keywords are more important than a sentence
Keywords, or the important words on the page, if your searching for problems with a compaq computer, besure to use the word ‘compaq’ and any words you know the problem would include. For example ‘compaq 8510p problems with the sims’. the sims, compaq, and the model number being the important words, that I think another person would describe the problem as. - Dont be afraid to rephrase
If you have been searching for a particular question or problem without any success, try rephrasing the problem. Just because you describe a problem one way, doesnt mean everyone else with that problem will describe it the same way. Using keywords, as mentioned above, will help you avoid that problem, but you may also need to think of synonyms for some of the words, or describe your problem in a different way. - Know what to expect
It sounds silly, but if you know what type of answer your looking for, generally you’ll get your answer faster. For example, if your searching for a computer problem, its likely your answer will come from a computer related website or blog. Look at the URL of the website before clicking a result and leaving the page. Read the description before clicking. If its not what your expecting, don’t waste your time on it. If you have a computer problem, that you think is something you can solve on your own, don’t click on a result that says ’solve your problem with this popup scanning software’. Knowing your looking for an article, and not a product will help you weed through all the results. - Use Sponsored ads when appropriate
Some people are already aware, but in case your not, Google makes the majority of its income (over 8 billion per quarter) from advertisements labeled Sponsored ads, at the top and right of the search results. I am not trying to tell you to avoid clicking the ads, because there are times when the ads happen to be exactly what you are looking for. Before clicking an ad, you first need to decide if you are looking for an item or service to purchase, or an answer to a question. If your looking for something to buy, then clicking the ad is probably not a bad idea (assuming it’s what your searching for), if your searching for an answer to a question, like how to make a cheap and easychocolate pie, clicking an ad, will probably bring you to places that sell pies, or sell recepies. The logic is simple, if its ‘free’ information your looking for, generally you won’t want to click on an ad, because not many poeple spend money on ads for things they make no money off of. If your looking to spend money, then clicking an ad may be worth while, since after all, the advertisers are trying to give you what your looking for.
These tips will hopefully help you find what your looking for when searching. There is also the Google Cheat Sheet, which is just a list of specific ways to search for things. Oddly enough, it does not go over the ‘cache’ operator. For more information google: google cache operator.