BrightPlanet - Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet

Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet

A BRIGHTPLANET TUTORIAL

Download the Complete Tutorial in PDF Format

Your ability to find the information you seek on the Internet is a function of how precise your queries are and how effectively you use search services. Poor queries return poor results; good queries return great results. Contrary to the hype surrounding "intelligent agents" and "artificial intelligence," the fact remains that search results are only as good as the query you pose and how you search. There is no silver bullet.

There are very effective ways to "structure" a query and use special operators to target the results you seek. Absent these techniques, you will spend endless hours looking at useless documents that do not contain the information you want. Or you will give up in frustration after search-click-download-reviewing long lists of documents before you find what you want.

This tutorial is organized to proceed from the basics to more advanced topics. It has 12 parts containing 51 topics and describes the search services, available operators, and the extremely important information on how to compose your queries.

Simple to follow examples are presented in each topic. We've written it to be a one-stop reference. Don't feel you need to work through all of the topics in one sitting. But, if you do take the time to work through this material, we guarantee you'll reap big dividends in faster and more accurate results. And, you will be on your way to earning the title of an Internet "Power Searcher."

Proceed Immediately to Tutorial Index Documentation is appended at the end of [1,2]; click on a number citation reference to go directly to it.

Executive Summary: The Two-Minute Bottom Line

To illustrate some of the basic concepts and recommendations covered in this tutorial, let's say we have an interest in recent findings about new planets being discovered outside our solar system. Using the information "contained" in this statement, you can see how an effective query can be built by following these guidelines.

We'll summarize the recommendation, show how the statement is phrased, describe why it's important, and provide a pointer to the specific topic number in the tutorial that covers this recommendation. At the conclusion of the table are the topics and their titles listed by number.

1. Use nouns and objects as query keywords.
	Example: planet or planets
	Why Important? Actions (verbs), modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, predicate subjects), and conjunctions are either "thrown away" by the search engines or too variable to be useful
	Topic No: 6, 7, 8

2. Use 6 to 8 keywords in query.
	Example: new, planet, planets, discovery, solar, system
	Why Important? More keywords, chosen at the appropriate "level", can reduce the universe of possible documents returned by 99% or more.
	Topic No: 8, 10

3. Truncate words to pick up singular and plural versions.
	Example: planet* or discover*
	Why Important? Use asterisk wildcard. The wildcard tells the search engine to match all characters after it, preserving keyword slots and increasing coverage by 50% or more.
	Topic No: 9

4. Use synonyms via the OR operator.
	Example: discover OR find*
	Why Important? Cover the likely different ways a concept can be described; generally avoid OR in other cases
	Topic No: 11

5. Combine keywords into phrases where possible.
	Example: "solar system*"
	Why Important? Use quotes to denote phrases. Phrases restrict results to EXACT matches; if combining terms is a natural marriage, narrows and targets results by many times.
	Topic No: 12

6. Combine 2 to 3 "concepts" in query.
	Example: "solar system", "new planet", discover* OR find*
	Why Important? Triangulating on multiple query concepts narrows and targets results, generally by more than 100-to-1.
	Topic No: 20

7. Distinguish "concepts" with parentheses.
	Example: ("solar system") ("new planet") (discover* OR find)*
	Why Important? Nest single query "concepts" with parentheses. (Overkill for now, but good practice when first learning.) Simple way to ensure the search engines evaluate your query in the way you want, from left to right.
	Topic No: 19

8. Order "concepts" with subject first.
	Example: ("new planet") (discover* OR find) ("solar system")*
	Why Important? Put main subject first. Engines tend to rank documents more highly that match first terms or phrases evaluated.
	Topic No: 7, 19, 20

9. Link "concepts" with the AND operator.
	Example: ("new planet") AND (discover* OR find) AND ("solar system")*
	Why Important? AND glues the query together. The resulting query is not overly complicated nor nested, and proper left-to-right evaluation order is ensured.
	Topic No: 14, 20

10. Issue query to full "Boolean" search engine or metasearcher.
	Example: ("new planet") AND (discover* OR find) AND ("solar system")*
	Why Important? Full-Boolean engines give you this control; metasearchers increase Web coverage by 3- to 4-fold.
	Topic No: 3, 35, 36, 38

Index

Click on these topic headings to proceed to them:

Executive Summary: The Two-Minute Bottom Line
Part 1: The Size of the Internet
Part 2: Internet Search Basics and Why There's a Problem
	Topic 1: Status of the Internet and Searcher's Frustrations
	Topic 2: Search Engine and Directory Basics
	Topic 3: How Search Services Rank Documents
	Topic 4: Characteristics of Searchers and What Takes Search Time

Part 3: Keywords — The Essence of the Search
	Topic 5: Sample Information Problem for this Tutorial
	Topic 6: Query Concepts: What, Where, When, How, Why
	Topic 7: Breaking Down Your Query
	Topic 8: Focus on Nouns and Objects
	Topic 9: Word Stemming and Use of Wildcards
	Topic 10: Finding the Right Level
	Topic 11: Synonyms
	Topic 12: Use of Phrases

Part 4: Boolean Basics
	Topic 13: Boolean Overview
	Topic 14: AND Operator
	Topic 15: OR Operator

Part 5: Advanced Operators
	Topic 16: NEAR Operator
	Topic 17: BEFORE and AFTER Operators
	Topic 18: AND NOT Operator

Part 6: Advanced Construction
	Topic 19: Use of Parentheses
	Topic 20: Combining Concepts for Power Searching
	Topic 21: Punctuation and Capitalization
	Topic 22: Multiple Queries and Query Refinements
	Topic 23: Sample Information Problem Revisited

Part 7: Pitfalls to Avoid
	Topic 24: Avoid Misspellings
	Topic 25: Redundant Terms
	Topic 26: Ignored Terms and Special Characters
	Topic 27: Alternate Spellings
	Topic 28: Too Many Terms, Synonyms
	Topic 29: Improper Boolean or Complicated Construction

Part 8: Using Filters
	Topic 30: Site Filters
	Topic 31: Size Filters
	Topic 32: Date Filters
	Topic 33: Specialty Filters and Search Options

Part 9: Understand Your Engines
	Topic 34: Some Caveats: The Dynamic Search Business
	Topic 35: Duplication, Coverage and Responsiveness
	Topic 36: Boolean or Not?
	Topic 37: A Comparison of 100 Search Services
	Topic 38: Features of the Top 10 Search Services
	Topic 39: Specialty Engines
	Topic 40: Some Other Services to Watch
	Topic 41: Some Perplexing Behaviors

Part 10: Specialty Searches
	Topic 42: Product Searches
	Topic 43: Competitor Intelligence
	Topic 44: Market Research
	Topic 45: Finding People
	Topic 46: Finding Places
	Topic 47; Finding Documents
	Topic 48: Finding Recent News

Part 11: Solutions and the Future of Searching
	Topic 49: Ruminations on the Future of Internet Searching

Part 12: Summary and Further Information

Notes, Links and References

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