I don't want to sound too dosile but can anyone help me?
I often need to look for random info to help with work and it takes me ages to find stuff using search engines, am i doig something wrong? Is there something i'm missing? Do you all know something i don't?

I tend to put in the keywords for what i need and then it brings me up loads of rubbish that has vnever been relevent but just happens to have the odd word in it the same as one i put.

HELP!:?

Try putting stuff in quotes, eg "SHEFFIELD FORUM" will give more accurate results than just SHEFFIELD FORUM, which will match both words, not the exact phrase.

Sometimes Google gives out so much rubbish for a keyword, that it is best to think of something associated but more individual to your topic, or collect words together to clarify.

Eg. Rock
returns all sorts of info on stones and music.
Rock music
returns all sorts of stones and all sorts of noise.
"Rock music"
should get you 'rock music', but 'live band' 'stage set' 'rockers' 'aor' 'spandex' 'stadium rock' 'nwobhm' etc, can narrow things down a bit too.

Sometimes I find it easier to find an appropriate site to read by clicking 'images' rather than doing a 'web' search.

Try it - put 'beagle' in and do an image search
:thumbsup: (you'll be surprised)

Try be as specific as you can about what you are looking for. Dont put in general words. Think about the order you are putting the words and how you expect to see them on a suitable page.

If you find that the same irrelevant topic keeps coming up you can try using minus in front of an appropriate keyword eg. beagle -mars

Originally posted by cuppatea
If you find that the same irrelevant topic keeps coming up you can try using minus in front of an appropriate keyword eg. beagle -mars

Oh yeah - there's an 'advanced serach' button on Google too!

use google for best results.

Type your words in quotes "so it searches for the exact words, together, in that order"

you can use + as well ie:-

search for this + this + and + that would search and pull all results that feature those words in any order

theres loads more too but ive forgotton, those are the ones i use anyway

Example of google search. To find The University of Sheffield

"Sheffield University" -Hallam +Prospectus

will get you a phase match, will remove pages containing hallam and only show pages with the word prospectus ...assuming you're after the prospectus for the university of sheffield.

And what do you know, it's the first link :)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Sheffield+University%22+-Hallam+%2BProspectus&btnG=Google+Search&meta=