Seven Ways to Find What You Want on the Internet: Gathering What You Need, Discarding What You Don't (2024)

Searching the internet can be a frustrating business. You enter a word or a phrase into a search engine and up comes a stack of irrelevant information.

What you need is the ability to refine your search to get exactly what you want.

In this article, we explore seven steps that you can take to pinpoint specific information online.

1. Vary Your Search Engine

Search engines sort through about 240 million active websites to provide you with content. You may favor one, but don't let habit restrict you. No search engine is perfect, and they all have different blind spots.

Click here to view a transcript of this video.

The most widely used search engines are Google, Bingand Yahoo.

  • Google usually returns the greatest variety of results, and has by far the largest catalog of pages.
  • Bing, however, has more extensive autocomplete results (where the search engine tries to narrow the search for you).
  • Yahoo offers search as part of a wider range of services that includes news and shopping. Other engines such as DuckDuckGo, Ecosia,and Dogpilealso have their devotees.

Tip:

You can perform more specific searches by using specialist search engines. Google Scholar, for example, allows you to search for academic articles that might be hard to find in a general search. And Wolfram Alpha is useful when you need data and statistics.

2. Use Specific Keywords

Keywords are the terms that you use to find content on the internet. Making your keywords as specific as possible will help your search engine to track down the information that you want.

Say, for example, that you want to find a local supplier that can design an exhibition stand for your company. If you type stand design into your search engine, the results will include many pages about other types of stand, whereas typing exhibition stand designer will return a more concise range of companies.

You can further refine your search by including other specific keywords. If you add your location, for example, you'll likely find someone local.

3. Simplify Your Search Terms

Some engines include stop words in their searches. These are frequently used words such as prepositions (in, of, on), conjunctions (and, but) and articles (a, the), which mean that you'll end up with more pages in your search results than you need.

So, it's usually best to eliminate stop words from your internet searches. The main exception is if you're looking for a specific title or name that includes them.

Also, use the simplest form of the keywords that you're looking for, by avoiding plurals and verb forms with suffixes such as -ing, -s or -ed. For example, you would improve the quality of your search results by searching for service rather than services, or finance rather than financed or financing.

4. Use Quotation Marks

Enclosing a search term within quotation marks prompts the search engine to search for that specific word or phrase.

If the term is a single word, using quotation marks will cut out stemmed variations of it. For example, if you search for the word director, you'll likely receive a lot of results for direct, direction, directions, and so on, too. Typing "director" (with quotation marks), however, will ensure that you only get results for that stem word.

Tip:

Some search engines allow you to search for specific words by preceding them with the + symbol. Google no longer uses this function, but Yahoo, for example, does.

If the search term is a phrase, your search will be for that specific phrase, rather than for all the component words as individual items. So, for example, if you search for the phrase director of human resources, without quotation marks, your search will return results based on all of the words in the phrase (except of, which is a stop word.) Surrounding the term with quotation marks, however, will generate results that feature this specific term.

5. Remove Unhelpful Words

Inserting a hyphen/small dash/minus sign immediately before a word excludes it from a search.

So imagine, for example, that you're looking to find out more about marketing. However, you want to concentrate on traditional marketing techniques, whereas the internet appears to be full of references to digital and social media marketing, all of which are appearing in your search.

Typing in marketing -digital will exclude digital from the search, making it easier for you to find the information you're looking for. Typing marketing -digital -social would allow you to get rid of even more clutter.

Seven Ways to Find What You Want on the Internet: Gathering What You Need, Discarding What You Don't (1)

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6. Refine Your Search Using Operators

Other characters or terms, known as operators, allow you to narrow down your internet search in more targeted ways. We explore a few, below:

  • Wildcard Searches: use the * symbol as a placeholder for another word. For example, searching for * man in the world returns results for the richest man in the world, the tallest, the oldest, and so on. Wildcard searches are also useful when, for example, you don't know the full text of a quote.
  • Combination Searches: the OR operator enables you to search for two or more terms simultaneously, and is most useful when those terms are very similar. Typing selling OR retailing, for example, will return pages where either of the terms is used, without both needing to be present.

    Another way to combine searches is to use AND. This operator ensures that you receive only search results that include two or more terms. For example, the search "Smee Computers" AND "Devlin Corporation" would only deliver search results that include the names of both companies.

  • Search a Specific Site: when you type site: followed by the URL of the website that you wish to search and a search term, you limit your search to a single website. So, site:mindtools.com "human resources" will return all the pages from MindTools.com that feature the term "human resources."
  • Finding Related Sites: another useful operator is related: Typing this in front of a web address that you already know – as in related:xyz.com – your search results will deliver a range of websites that are similar to xyz.com.

7. Avoid Search Pitfalls

When searching online, it's important to bear in mind that many companies now have staff who are dedicated to improving their visibility online. They constantly tweak the wording of their websites to match the most commonly used keywords – a process known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

As a result, the sites listed at the top of your search results may have very good SEO, but it doesn't necessarily follow that they'll have the best content. So, even when you've put in the best search terms you can, it's often worth digging down through your search results to find the best information.

With so much information now at your disposal, you need to be savvy about what is authoritative, and what is merely opinionated. Some blogs, for example, rank highly without actually being written by accredited experts. So, check carefully that the author of any information you use is well-regarded, and preferably associated with an academic institution, a professional body, or a reputable news organization.

It's also worth being aware of paid advertisem*nts, which can appear at the top of search engine listings because companies have paid for them to do so. These are simply designed to sell to you, which is fine if you're looking to buy, but can be a hindrance to general search.

Key Points

The internet is vast and often confusing, and in order to find what you want, you need to take some basic steps to make your search as focused and rewarding as possible. Strategies for pinpointing the best, most relevant content include the following:

  • Vary your search engine: in fact, get used to using several, as they have different strengths.
  • Use specific keywords: be as specific as you can in your wording.
  • Simplify your search terms: strip out unnecessary stop words and avoid suffixes.
  • Use quotation marks: this narrows searches down to particular words and phrases.
  • Remove unhelpful words: remove confusing or misdirecting terms from your searches with the - (minus) operator.
  • Refine your search using operators: use operators to search specific sites, related sites, and particular combinations of terms.
  • Avoid search pitfalls: the internet is a selling tool as well as a fantastic resource. Be sure that you only view advertisem*nts if you want to.
Seven Ways to Find What You Want on the Internet: Gathering What You Need, Discarding What You Don't (2024)

FAQs

How do you find a topic on the Internet? ›

If you already know exactly what you're looking for, a search engine is the best way to find it. Search engines use keywords or phrases you choose to determine which web pages have relevant information. Think of a search engine as an index for the web. The most relevant results appear at the top of the screen.

What are some of the search tools that you can use to find information? ›

Internet Resources: Internet Search Tools
  • Bing. General web search engine from Microsoft.
  • DuckDuckGo. A general search engine with a focus on user privacy.
  • Google. The predominant search engine. ...
  • Google Scholar. ...
  • TinEye. ...
  • Wolfram|Alpha. ...
  • Yahoo! ...
  • Yippy.
20 Aug 2021

When you conduct a search on the Internet you have to enter? ›

To perform a search, you'll need to navigate to a search engine in your web browser, type one or more keywords—also known as search terms—then press Enter on your keyboard. In this example, we'll search for recipes. After you run a search, you'll see a list of relevant websites that match your search terms.

What is Internet search techniques? ›

Search Techniques Search techniques are the methods you use to search catalogs, article databases, and web search engines to find information. The use of the Boolean operators AND and OR between keywords to create a search statement is an example of a search technique.

What are the seven ways to find what you want on the Internet? ›

Seven Ways to Find What You Want on the Internet
  1. Vary Your Search Engine. Search engines sort through about 240 million active websites to provide you with content. ...
  2. Use Specific Keywords. ...
  3. Simplify Your Search Terms. ...
  4. Use Quotation Marks. ...
  5. Remove Unhelpful Words. ...
  6. Refine Your Search Using Operators. ...
  7. Avoid Search Pitfalls.

What are the 10 uses of search engine? ›

10 Uses For Google's Search By Images
  • Find People. This works best with portraits. ...
  • Find Dead People. The Internet offers lots of information about people of the past. ...
  • Get Information About Art. ADVERTIsem*nT. ...
  • Find a Location. ...
  • Sightseeing. ...
  • Identify Plants. ...
  • Identify Animals. ...
  • Identify Technology.
16 Jun 2011

What are the types of search tools? ›

Examples
  • Google. Considered the first stop by many Web searchers. ...
  • Bing. General web search engine from Microsoft.
  • Google Scholar. One of Google's specialized search tools, Google Scholar focuses primarily on information from scholarly and peer-reviewed sources. ...
  • DuckDuckGo.
20 Aug 2021

Which is the best search tool for finding sites? ›

A good place to start your Internet search. Google is often highly rated by users. It is one of the largest indexers of the Web.

What tools or resources do you use typically use to find information? ›

In this Section
  • Books.
  • Encyclopedias.
  • Magazines.
  • Databases.
  • Newspapers.
  • Library Catalog.
  • Internet.
27 Sept 2021

What are the 5 most commonly used search engines? ›

Top search engines
  • Google.
  • Bing.
  • Baidu.
  • Yahoo!
  • Ask.com.
  • DuckDuckGo.
25 Sept 2018

What are search engines give 3 examples? ›

Popular examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search. Search engines utilize automated software applications (referred to as robots, bots, or spiders) that travel along the Web, following links from page to page, site to site.

Which search engines would be the best if you were looking for something much unknown? ›

Explanation: Nowadays, google chrome is the best search engine to use.

What are the 5 basic information search techniques? ›

The search techniques introduced on this webpage are: Boolean operators, phrase searching, truncation/wildcards, and nesting.

What is effective search techniques? ›

Some good tips are:

your search terms too broad and you will get too many hits. Make them too specific and you will get too few. Be prepared to refine your search after reviewing your initial results. • Avoid using prepositions, conjunctions or common verbs as search terms.

What are search strategies? ›

A search strategy is an organised structure of key terms used to search a database. The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search question in order to retrieve accurate results. Your search strategy will account for all: possible search terms. keywords and phrases.

Why is it important to know how do you use the Internet effectively? ›

Today, the internet has become unavoidable in our daily life. Appropriate use of the internet makes our life easy, fast and simple. The internet helps us with facts and figures, information and knowledge for personal, social and economic development.

How can we get information from the Internet in an efficient manner? ›

Here are a few basic guidelines to remember:
  1. Don't rely exclusively on Net resources. ...
  2. Narrow your research topic before logging on. ...
  3. Know your subject directories and search engines. ...
  4. Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use. ...
  5. Double-check all URLs that you put in your paper.

What are the following online safety measures to avoid these online crimes? ›

Essential internet safety tips
  • #1: Make sure your internet connection is secure. ...
  • #2: Choose strong passwords. ...
  • #3: Enable multi-factor authentication where you can. ...
  • #4: Keep software and operating systems up-to-date. ...
  • #5: Check that websites look and feel reliable.

What search engine is better than Google? ›

DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo, which was founded back in 2008, is perhaps the most widely known Google search rival. At the start of 2021, its privacy-focused search engine passed more than 100 million daily search queries for the first time – and has since been averaging around 90 million per month.

Which country uses Google the most? ›

The Top Googled Countries Overall

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. is the most googled country on the list, ranking first place in 45 of the 190 countries included in the dataset.

Does DuckDuckGo use Bing? ›

DuckDuckGo uses over 400 sources to provide results, including sources such as: Bing. Yahoo. Apple Maps.

What are the 4 types of search? ›

4 types of search intent
  • Informational intent. Let's start with informational intent. ...
  • Navigational intent. The second type of search intent is called navigational intent. ...
  • Transactional intent. The third type of search intent is transactional intent. ...
  • Commercial investigation.
23 Sept 2021

What is the most commonly used website for searching information? ›

List of Top 12 Best Search Engines in The World
  • Google. Google Search Engine is the best search engine in the world and it is also one of most popular products from Google. ...
  • Bing. Bing is Microsoft's answer to Google and it was launched in 2009. ...
  • Yahoo. ...
  • Baidu. ...
  • AOL. ...
  • Ask.com. ...
  • Excite. ...
  • DuckDuckGo.
11 Nov 2016

Which of the tool is used to search information on Internet? ›

Web search engines

A Web search engine produces a list of “pages”—computer files listed on the Web—that contain the terms in a query.

Which is the best search tool for finding websites that have been and picked and recommended by someone else? ›

Solution(By Examveda Team)

Subject directories tend to house fewer—sometimes more relevant—sites than those found through search engines. Sites in a subject directory often have been handpicked by editorial teams or specialists in a particular field.

Why is it important to know the sources of information? ›

It is important to keep in mind the intended effect of an information source, because that can inform what information it contains and how reliable that information is. Also, you should be aware of any effects the information source is having on your emotional state and your opinions.

Which search tool would efficiently help you to find and access academic sources in a range of materials types ie articles videos books ebooks etc? ›

Google Scholar

It will search for articles, theses, books, abstracts, patents, court opinions, and case law from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, and web sites across many disciplines and sources.

What is the best source of information? ›

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Internet is by far the most popular source of information and the preferred choice for news ahead of television, newspapers and radio, according to a new poll in the United States.

What is the most popular search? ›

Top 100 Google searches in the U.S.
#KeywordSearch volume
1facebook160,000,000
2youtube151,000,000
3amazon121,000,000
4weather103,000,000
96 more rows
25 Aug 2022

What is the most commonly searched term on Google in 2022? ›

The winner of most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or "weather" for short.

What are the five best search engines for students? ›

The top list of academic search engines
  1. Google Scholar. Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. ...
  2. Microsoft Academic. It's Microsoft answer to Google Scholar. ...
  3. BASE. ...
  4. CORE. ...
  5. Science.gov. ...
  6. Semantic Scholar. ...
  7. Baidu Scholar. ...
  8. RefSeek.

What are some of the search tools you can use to find information? ›

Internet Resources: Internet Search Tools
  • Bing. General web search engine from Microsoft.
  • DuckDuckGo. A general search engine with a focus on user privacy.
  • Google. The predominant search engine. ...
  • Google Scholar. ...
  • TinEye. ...
  • Wolfram|Alpha. ...
  • Yahoo! ...
  • Yippy.
20 Aug 2021

What is the most used search engine? ›

1. Google. With over 86% of the search market share, one hardly needs to introduce readers to Google. However, it clearly needs to head up any list of search engines.

What are some unknown search engines? ›

9 Unique Search Engines You Haven't Used Yet
  • DuckDuckGo.
  • Shodan.
  • TinEye.
  • Ecosia.
  • The Wayback Machine.
  • FindSounds.
  • Dogpile.
  • Million Short.
20 Jan 2022

What search engine is untraceable? ›

MetaGer. MetaGer lets you make confidential untraceable searches that leave no footprints. It also integrates a proxy server so that you can open any link anonymously from the search result pages and yet keep your IP address hidden from the destination server. It also never tracks your keywords.

What is the most private way to search the Internet? ›

Use incognito mode
  1. Click the three dots on the top right of your browser.
  2. Choose “New Incognito window.”
  3. Begin browsing.
  4. To exit incognito mode, close the open window.
23 Mar 2018

What is a basic search? ›

Basic Search allows you to search and retrieve all records that contain the search terms you enter. Your search term must consist of at least three alphabetic or numeric characters. Basic Search allows you to search by any device attribute, such as: Device Identifier (DI)

What are three types of search methods to refine searching? ›

Boolean Searching
  • What is Boolean Searching? Most searches will return too many or too few records. ...
  • Narrowing Searches. If your search returns too many records, you can narrow your search by adding more search terms. ...
  • Broadening Searches. ...
  • Proximity, Truncation and Wild Cards.

How do I do an advanced search? ›

Do an Advanced Search
  1. On your computer, go to Advanced Search: google.com/advanced_search.
  2. Under “Find pages with,” choose the query field/s to: ...
  3. Enter the words that you want to include or remove from your results. ...
  4. Under "Then narrow your results by," choose the filters you want to use. ...
  5. Click Advanced Search.

What are the seven ways to find what you want on the Internet? ›

Seven Ways to Find What You Want on the Internet
  1. Vary Your Search Engine. Search engines sort through about 240 million active websites to provide you with content. ...
  2. Use Specific Keywords. ...
  3. Simplify Your Search Terms. ...
  4. Use Quotation Marks. ...
  5. Remove Unhelpful Words. ...
  6. Refine Your Search Using Operators. ...
  7. Avoid Search Pitfalls.

What are the 3 steps to creating a search strategy? ›

How to Construct an Effective Search Strategy
  1. Step 1: Develop a research question or choose a topic.
  2. Step 2: Identify the first step in your research process.
  3. Step 3: Develop your search strategy using PICO.
  4. Step 4: Brainstorm your search terms or identify terminology that must be included in your search.

What are the basic steps for developing a search strategy? ›

  1. The Search Strategy. ...
  2. Step One: Identify a Topic. ...
  3. Step Two: Set up a Search Strategy Using Boolean Operators. ...
  4. Step Three: Find Background Information. ...
  5. Step Four: Find Books. ...
  6. Step Five: Find Periodicals. ...
  7. Step Six: Find Newspaper Articles. ...
  8. Step Seven: Consult Other Sources.
8 Aug 2022

What is a Boolean search strategy? ›

Boolean searching is built on a method of symbolic logic developed by George Boole, a 19th century English mathematician. Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT (known as Boolean operators) to limit, broaden, or define your search.

What are the types of search techniques? ›

Effective Search Techniques
  • Keyword Searching. Use a keyword search to search all parts of a source for the words you enter in the search box. ...
  • Boolean Searching. ...
  • Subject Searching. ...
  • Limiters. ...
  • Phrase Searching. ...
  • Using References/Works Cited Lists.
7 Sept 2022

Where can I find topics? ›

How to Find New Content Topic Ideas
  1. Google Search.
  2. Google Trends.
  3. Topic Research Tool (SEMRush)
  4. Answer the Public.
  5. Competitor Websites.
  6. YouTube Search.
  7. Online Courses.
  8. Google Analytics.
19 Feb 2022

How do I research a topic on Google? ›

Advanced search allows you to:
  1. Combine search terms.
  2. Select where you want your search terms to appear on a page, for example, in the title or in the text.
  3. Search by date.
  4. Search by country.
  5. Limit your search to a single domain.
  6. Limit the number of results displayed.
  7. Search for a specific file type.
26 Mar 2020

What is the topic of the Internet? ›

The Internet is a global network of billions of computers and other electronic devices. With the Internet, it's possible to access almost any information, communicate with anyone else in the world, and do much more. You can do all of this by connecting a computer to the Internet, which is also called going online.

How do you research a specific topic? ›

Research Process Overview
  1. Develop a topic. Select a Topic | Develop Research Questions | Identify Keywords | Find Background Information | Refine a Topic.
  2. Locate information. ...
  3. Evaluate and analyze information. ...
  4. Write, organize, and communicate information. ...
  5. Cite sources.
19 May 2022

How do you search for content? ›

Search for text or files in a list or library
  1. Go to the list or library that you want to search.
  2. In the search box, type the word or phrase that you want to look for, and then click the Search button.
  3. By default, search results are displayed by relevance.

Why is it important to choose a topic that interests you? ›

Choose a topic that interests you.

You'll have more to say, and you'll write better, on something you care about. Generally, if you choose a topic that is interesting to you, then your reader will find it interesting too.

How can I research everything online? ›

Research Using the Internet
  1. Don't rely exclusively on Net resources. ...
  2. Narrow your research topic before logging on. ...
  3. Know your subject directories and search engines. ...
  4. Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use. ...
  5. Double-check all URLs that you put in your paper.

What can Google do tricks? ›

Best Google tricks list
  • Do a barrel roll.
  • Atari Breakout.
  • Askew.
  • Recursion.
  • Google Gravity.
  • Thanos.
  • Anagram.
  • Zerg Rush.
6 Jul 2022

What are the Internet sources? ›

An online source is material you find online. It can be an online newspaper, magazine or television website such as NBC or CNN. Peer-reviewed journals, webpages, forums and blogs are also online sources. Some other names for online sources are electronic sources, web sources and Internet sources.

What is the impact of internet in today's student life? ›

Studies conducted on the students show that internet addiction has been accompanied by major problems such as the educational drop, reduced the curriculum study, anxiety, reduced interpersonal relationships, reduced physical activities, irregularity, and nutritional diseases (11-14).

What is internet explain 100 words? ›

Internet can be defined as a global network of computer systems that are interconnected and adhere to the internet protocol suite. Internet these days has expanded to almost all realms such as private, business, education, etc. It has proved itself as an amazing platform to search information of all kind.

What is the importance of using the internet? ›

The internet helps us with facts and figures, information and knowledge for personal, social and economic development. There are many uses of the internet, however, the use of the internet in our daily life depends on individual requirements and goals.

What are the 7 steps of the research process? ›

The Seven Steps of the Research Process
  • Step 1: Identify and Develop Your Topic. ...
  • Step 2: Find Background Information. ...
  • Step 3: Use Catalogs to Find Books and Media. ...
  • Step 4: Use Databases to Find Journal Articles. ...
  • Step 5: Find Internet Resources. ...
  • Step 6: Evaluate What You Find. ...
  • Step 7: Cite What You Find Using a Standard Format.
14 Apr 2022

What are the 7 steps of writing a research paper? ›

Seven steps to writing a university research paper
  • Step One: Determine the purpose of the paper. ...
  • Step Two: Refine your research question. ...
  • Step Three: Organize your approach. ...
  • Step Four: Collect information. ...
  • Step Five: Attribute the information. ...
  • Step Six: Write your conclusion. ...
  • Step Seven: Refine your thesis statement.
20 Dec 2020

What are the 5 research process? ›

The five stages are choosing a topic, identifying a problem, formulating a research process, creating a research design, and writing a research proposal.

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