Newsgroups and Mailing Lists

#1 Understand Boolean commands
To take full advantage of a search engine’s power, you need to understand and use its advanced search features. Single word search - though very handy, is simply not enough for most information research. You can use multiple words to define your search using Boolean operators OR, AND, NOT etc.

OR (Match Any)
Searches for pages containing ANY ONE of ALL your search words. You generally put Boolean operator OR between synonyms
Example: - cars OR vehicles OR automobile OR motorcar
Some search engines accept comma or space as OR (cars vehicles automobile motorcar)
Caution ! More words you use with OR, larger will be the number of hits or result

AND (Match All)
Search with AND yields only those pages that contain ALL your search words. This is a great help to refine your search.
Example: - software AND export AND India
Some search engines accept + as AND (+software +export +India)
Caution ! More words you use with AND, less will be the number of hits resulting in loss of relevant information.

NOT (Exclude) Search will ensure that only those pages are retrieved that DO NOT contain given word or words
Example: - ganga NOT river
Some search engines accept - as NOT (+ganga -river)
Caution ! Use selectively with words to make your search more specific. Use liberally to weed out non-english language pages

Phrase Searches
Allows you to look for a specific phrase or series of words. Also use this for finding a proper name.
Example: - 'Indira Gandhi' The search result will be far more specific than indira AND Gandhi as pages with words like 'Indira Sen' and 'Rajeev Gandhi' will not be retrieved
Caution ! Different search engines use different symbols for defining phrase

Proximity The search calls up documents that contain keywords that are close to each other. Some let you specify how close they will be.
Boolean Command: NEAR (small NEAR business) or NEAR/# to specify how close in words the phrases must be (small NEAR/10 business means that small must be within 10 words of business).
Boolean Symbol: [ ] ([small business])
Example: small NEAR business would call up articles that contain phrases referring to 'small and medium-sized business' which would not show up in a phrase search.
Caution ! Not all search engines allow proximity search

Wildcards Allows you to search for plurals or variations of a word. It’s very useful if you don’t know an exact spelling.

Boolean Symbol: * (econ*)
Example: econ* would find pages that contain the words 'economy' or 'economies'
Caution ! Use very selectively as improper use may throw your search logic out of gear with millions of irrelevant pages as hits. For example, the above search for economy or economies will also retrieve pages with words 'economist' 'economic' 'econometric' and all other words in the dictionery starting with word stem econ.

#2 Read search engine help and how-to screens Unfortunately, every search engine actually operates differently from every other one, so it’s critical to understand each one’s unique rules. Even the various directories use different schematics and index vocabulary. Take a few minutes up front to glance through the help screens to learn some of these guidelines; it will save you hours in the end. Some things to keep in mind are:

• What are the default search settings?
  
• What Boolean commands or symbols does it use?
  
• Does it support multiple word or phrase searches?
  
• How does the engine index pages? by entire document? URL? first paragraph? title?
  
• Does the engine index every page of a site, or just top-level pages?
  
• Are searches case sensitive?

#3 Look for ways to limit your searches

Some search engines allow you to limit your search by fields, such as the title of a document, a URL, and hyperlinks. This is especially useful if you’re looking for a specific home page. For example, if you were looking for the home page of the National Restaurant Association, you could limit your search to the title of the document, making it more likely that you’ll turn up the association’s home page in a limited return.

Similarly, some sites allow you to search by types of media, such as sounds or images. This way, you don’t have to use words like 'image' or 'picture' in your search to come up with the correct results.

#4 Make your searches as specific as possible

The more terms you use, the more limited your search will be, and the greater the chance you may have of finding relevant documents. Essentially, you have to think like the page you’re seeking. What terms would show up on that page? Try and come up with a complete list; then, if you find you’re search does not yield enough results, begin paring back your keywords.

Commonly used words make poor search keywords; in fact, many search engines don’t even look for common articles and prepositions like 'of' 'and' 'the'. Try to focus on words and terms that are unique to and highlight the difference in the information you are seeking.

For example, if you’re looking for information about small business insurance, don’t just go searching for 'insurance' since that would yield an unmanageable number of results. Instead, narrow it by looking for as many relevant terms as you can come up with: insurance AND '“small business' AND liability AND professional AND product AND 'business owner’s policy' AND BOP

#5 If your search produces no results...
Occasionally, you might find that a search yields zero hits, or that none of the results you get are relevant. This can be frustrating, especially if you know that the information you are seeking is out there, somewhere. If this happens, do some quick troubleshooting:

• Re-read the search tool’s help file to make sure you’re using the right rules.
• Check your spelling
• Check to make sure you’re using the right Boolean operators and syntax
• Try a less specific query
• Use synonyms or variations of a word
• Go to another search engine and try the search again.

#6 Use more than one search site
Various search engines have their own search techniques. The more you use them, the more familiar you’ll become with their various strengths and weaknesses. You can then choose the right search site depending on the type of information you are seeking.

For example, for a straightforward search that might result in a high volume of matches, begin your search with the most limited site -- either an industry- specific index or a directory like Yahoo!. Then you can expand your search to use one of the engines like AltaVista as you know more specifics about what you’re searching for.

#8 Use your bookmarks
If you find a site and you’re likely to use it again, bookmark it. Even the most disorganized bookmark file can be more convenient than a search engine for accessing a useful resource.