I’m often surprised when someone tells me they’re having trouble finding something online. When I observe their techniques, though, I begin to see some reasons behind it. These tips will help you hone your search techniques so that you’ll find a useful result on the first page nearly every time.

1. Google is not always the best answer. Sounds like sacrilege, doesn’t it? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there is another search engine that will do a better job than Google. But depending on what sort of information you’re looking for, you might actually find better information, quicker, by going directly to an information source. Examples:

   • Wikipedia. If you are looking for an overview of a subject, there is really no better place to start than Wikipedia. You’ve probably heard that you can’t trust the information in Wikipedia because “anyone can edit it!” (usually recited somewhat hysterically), but the truth is that most of the time the information there is just fine. There are a lot of people editing it, and for the most part it ends up right. If accuracy is critically important, then Wikipedia should only be your first research stop. One of the great things about Wikipedia is that pages are documented. Not only are there links between related articles, but there are also links at the bottom of the page to the sources that were used to write the article. If you follow the links to the sources, you can decide for yourself what is or is not credible.
   • IMDb. Looking for information about a movie? Or an actor, director, or television show? Start with IMDb, the Internet Movie Database. It is the single most comprehensive source for cast lists, summaries, biographies, and myriad other bits of trivia related to movies and TV. If you want more depth than IMDb has, you can also go back to Wikipedia, which also has a wealth of information on these subjects. You’ll find that IMDb and Wikipedia are organized differently, though, so you might go to them for different sorts of information.
   • Amazon.com. Did I just send you to a shopping site for information? Yes, I did. Amazon’s product database is huge, complex, and as close to comprehensive as probably exists. Even if you aren’t actually looking to buy anything, you will find nearly any pertinent information about a product in Amazon’s database. It’s especially useful for books, movies, video games, etc., but Amazon’s inventory has grown so much that its database can be a valuable source of information for all sorts of products and purchases.

   [Note: In the following examples, I use red text to denote search strings. This is to avoid confusion with search strings that include quotation marks, and I hope it will still be easy to follow.]

2. Be specific. The more related words you put in a search, the better your search results will be. (I’m sure it’s possible to go overboard, but in principle this is true.) For a simple example, say you wanted to look up information about author Dan Brown. Try Googling Brown. Surprisingly–because Google is just that good–that search does turn up Dan Brown’s official website within the first page of results, but it’s way down the page. Change your search to Dan Brown instead and his site pops to the top of the list, along with the Wikipedia page devoted to him and other relevant links. Any time you do a Google search, try to come up with words that make your subject unique or that are a key part of its description. Use those, and your Google searches will improve immediately. Searches terms that are too generic are probably the single reason why people have difficulty searching at times.
3. Google phrases, not just a string of words. Did you know that Google interprets your search differently if you put quotation marks around it? When you search for a string of words–without quotation marks–Google looks for pages that contain those words anywhere within the page. They might have nothing to do with each other in the context of the page, but because they appear in the page, they will also appear somewhere in your results. (This is one reason that many searches find literally millions of matching pages.) However, if you put your search string in quotation marks (type "Dan Brown" instead of just Dan Brown) then Google searches for the two words together in a page. This can be especially helpful if you’re looking for information about a quote or for song lyrics or a poem. Even if you can only remember a fragment, Google can usually find it if you put it in quotation marks.

Finally, here’s something I do that almost–but not quite–makes tip #1 a lie. I’m not sure it really qualifies as a tip so much as “Michelle’s lazy workaround,” which is why I didn’t include it in the list above, but I’ve developed this strategy because I pretty much always have a Google search bar handy (there’s one in my browser’s toolbar, and I always have my iGoogle page open). If I want to search for something that I know I’ll want to read–first anyway–on Wikipedia, I don’t actually go to the Wikipedia page and then search. Instead, I type my search phrase in the Google search bar and add the word “wiki.” This makes the Wikipedia link pop to the top of my results. (Continuing my example from above, I’d search for Dan Brown wiki–no quotes, although I could do "Dan Brown" wiki if I wanted to.)

The same technique works for IMDb–Google Clark Gable imdb, and the IMDb link to Clark Gable pops right up on top. It will work for any website that is indexed on Google, probably, so if you have a favorite information site that I haven’t talked about here, give it a try. Just make sure the identifying word you use is descriptive of the site; often the domain name is the best choice. (I just Googled firstbytes math and my post about Google Math popped to the top of the results–not bad, considering the site is only a week old!)

There is more to this subject, of course, so expect to see at least one more related post in the future. In the meantime, happy Googling!

Tagged as: amazon, google, imdb, search, wikipedia