November 5, 2008, Vol. 2, Issue 21

While much of what we make our living from is helping you find information, we have decided to devote the next two newsletters to sharpening your search skills. Yes, you read that correctly. We thought we would share some of our favorite tools increasing your odds of finding that random statistic, image or fact, for when you don’t have time to call us.

Now, to becoming a better a researcher…

There’s more to life than just Google.

We’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Use the right search engine for the right job. Google is great, but sometimes you’ve got to branch out.  Try Zuula.  It aggregates results from several different search engines.  Currently, Zuula offers Web, Image, Video, News, Blog, and Job searches.

If you’re a Google loyalist and can’t bring yourself to try a different engine (you know who you are), then at least expand your horizons and check out their other offerings like Google Scholar.  It searches scholarly literature so you can locate papers, abstracts and citations on the topic of your choice.

Become more refined (This isn’t an insult. Really.)

The key to finding what you are looking for quickly is knowing how to strip away the extraneous results, as much as possible, from your search. While there are dozens of ways to do this, you can start here:

Make the preferences button your friend

Most search engines will have a button called “preferences”.  Stop ignoring it.  Set the number of results returned to the highest number (you’re going to be shocked how much time you save), set your filtering level (adult sites?), choose language, whether results open in a new window. Stuff like that. Good times.

Don’t be intimidated; try Advanced Search

Check out the “advanced search” button. You can set a time frame for your search, exclude certain words, and more. You can choose the file type returned in your search so you only get PowerPoint results or only PDFs. This is Wendy’s personal favorite tip. She swears by it.

And while you’re at it, check the Search Tips and Tricks. While this is called something different on all the search engines, it’s the same sort of information – ways to refine your search technique specific to the engine you’re using. Reading this stuff is dull as dirt, we admit. But you’re going to learn something new. We promise.

Put a little extra thought into your keywords

Really give some thought to your string of keywords.  A great way to do that is to think about the results you’d like to get and use those words.  For example, if we were researching “recycling initiatives in Ohio”.  We might use the words recycling, green, environment, sustainability, initiatives, projects, efforts.  Get creative!

“Break out the quotation marks”

Putting search phrases in quotes can help isolate results.  Try your search in and out of quotes and see what kind of difference it makes.

Practice subtraction

Usually we get more specific in our search by adding keywords to ‘drill down’. Consider taking words out of results for more precision. Example: the query “Ethel Mertz” -”Lucy” will find pages that contain “Ethel Mertz” and will not include pages that mention “Lucy.” Notice, there is no space between the “-” sign and the word or phrase you want to exclude. There is, however, a space between the “-” sign and the previous word.

We know you’re dying to try these things out so have at it and think of us fondly.

We’ll be back in two weeks. Meantime, Gus is waiting for your questions. He’s already answered a couple over here. Is yours next?