Search Engines
Search Engines, FAQs & Search Sites
Effective Searches - Search Tools - Search Engines - Other Search Sites
Effective Searches
Use Help Pages & FAQs
When searching for information on the Internet using Search Engines spend a few moments checking the help pages and FAQs you find there. It will enhance you search time by avoiding some common errors.
Be Selective
Choose your search terms to obtain the best results. You might need to experiment a bit to find what works best for you.
- Don't make your search too broad or too narrow.
- Use lower case instead of upper or mixed case.
- Specify exactly what it is you want. (Use copyright instead of law).
- State what search terms must be on a page to be selected.
- Refine your search terms if you get too many responses.
Know Your Search Engine
Not all search engines use the same methods to catalogue pages and search results may vary by search engine.
- Not all search engines catalogue the same items or search in the same manner. Try another search engine if you don't get the results you need or if you feel uncomfortable with the interface.
- Use modifiers (i.e. +, -, NOT, OR...) only if you understand what effect they will have in the search engine you are using.
Search Tools
Try these tools to help you:
Internet research for writers by Charlie Harris.
http://www.immt.pwr.wroc.pl/faq/msg00083.html
TracerLock can monitor search engines for you and notify you by e-mail when a new instance of a search term is found.
http://www.tracerlock.com
Google Desktop Search your own computer..
http://desktop.google.com
Copernic is software that interfaces with multiple search engines to search many at one time. It requires installation and is available for the Windows and Mac platforms only.
http://www.copernic.com
Web Search Engines
Google Canada.
http://www.google.ca
Yahoo! Canada.
http://ca.yahoo.com
Alta Vista.
http://www.altavista.com
DogPile.
http://www.dogpile.com
HotSheet - the easy way to the best of the Web.
http://www.hotsheet.com
Needle in a CyberStack—the InfoFinder.
http://albeej.home.mchsi.com
Other Search Sites
Web Lens—Pam Blackstone's Bringing the Web into Focus.
http://www.weblens.org
Submitting Link Suggestions
We only link to sites relevant to our site content. We do not do link exchanges for SEO, but to enhance the content on this site. See our guidelines, particularly regarding the relevance of your link.
www.canauthors.org/links/search.html
Updated: June 25, 2006
