The Goal of an Online Search is to get the right information, of the necessary quality in a reasonable amount of time. So how do we do that without just wadding through vast amounts of results. The main thing we want to do is to developed a strategy to make our searches the most efficient.
The Needle and the Haystack.
Some times online and database searches feel like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. So how do you make it more efficient?
Utilize specialized online search engines and syntax commands to get closer to what is is you are looking for. Google is not the only player in the game
| Phrase search | " " | To search for a group of words in an exact order, | "Martin Luther King, Jt" or "search engine" "the band that sang hold your head up" |
| Site search | site: | To limit searchs to a particular site or domain Pair with -to eliminate hits from a site or domain |
site:gov site:npr.org -site:.com |
| File type | Filetype: | To limit results to certain file types |
Filetype:pdf |
| In Url or In title |
Inurl: Intitle: |
Limit results to those with terms in either the URL or webpage title |
Inurl:equal justice initiative intitle:martin luther king |
* To find a search term within a page, use the "find" feature on the web browser (CRTL+F command)