How to Search the web

There are many ways to search the web for specific information. Although it is amazing what you can find by following links from one site to another, the fastest way to search what you are looking for is to use one of the powerful search engines.

From the link on the Home Page there is a link to Search on the Useful Links on the Home Page. Here there is a collection of some of the Search Engines with a description of which are best suited for your current enquiry.

Many search engines use a Boolean method for identifying and focusing the search by selecting combinations of critical words. For an explanation of the Boolean phrases, refer to the FAQ for Conducting a Boolean Search.

Simple search commands as used by AltVista
Use as many words as you want to focus the search.

Example.. small business franchise Australia is more likely to produce better results than a search for only small business.

Use + in front of a word to require that word to appear.
Example: + small + business will find both the words small and business in the one page.

Use - to exclude a word.
Example.. + business - franchise will find pages that include business but exclude all pages with the word franchise.

Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.
Example.. "to be or not to be". Without quotation marks you'll get pages that use any of those words.

Use only lower case unless you want your search to be case sensitive. Example: ACT will only find pages with ACT, a search for act will find pages with ACT, act, AcT, ACt.

Use * broaden your search to find variations and plurals of words. Example: librar* will find library, librarian, librarianship, libraries.

title:text finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the title of the page

Example: title:"elvis presley" will find pages with "Elvis Presley" in the title.

Image:filename finds pages with images having a specific filename. Example: image:elvis will find pages with images called elvis.

An Entertaining Alternative
An interesting and amusing site for obtaining information is the AskJeeves site at http://www.aj.com/ where you can enter a question in plain text, and a list of possible links will be returned. One of the requirements for sites linked to AskJeeves is that they respond and load quickly.

For example you could type: "What is the current temperature in Melbourne?" You may be surprised to find that you are connected to CNN News for this information, and then find that the information has been updated more recently than if you had visited the Melbourne Bureau of Meteorology.

A new kid on the block - Google
A new and very fast facility is available from http://www.google.com/. This site also provides excellent Help and explanation information at www.google.com/help.html including "Learning the Basics" and searches in specific languages.