Tips for Better Internet Searches

The Internet offers us many shopping opportunities.  The first step is to search for what you are looking for.  So you open up your internet and type into the search engine.  How fast you get relevant results depends on the words and symbols you enter. Try the search with synonyms and see how the results vary.  Once you see a set of results that seems to be getting closer to what you’re looking for, begin to narrow your results with these hints. 

• Use an exact phrase to describe what you’re looking for and use “quotation marks” around it (“15 inch” laptop computer).
• Use the plus sign (+) in front of any word for results that include the word (laptop + computer); use the minus sign (-) in front of any word to get results that exclude the word (computer - tablets).
• Use AND or (&) to find webpages with all the terms or phrases you enter (laptop AND computer). 
• Use OR or (|) to find webpages with information on two topics (laptop OR computer)
• Use different search engines to vary your results.
• A few results that show up first will be labeled ‘Ad.’ That means a company has paid to put its product in the first results you see.
• If your first page of results seems on target, it’s still smart to look at several pages of results to see all potentially relevant items, not just the first few or those on the first page. 
• Experiment. It takes only seconds for search results to appear so there’s no down side to changing search engines, terms and symbols.