Want to quickly find an Asian restaurant in the vicinity? Search online for the likely weather for your next holiday? Simple web searches like these rarely cause problems, but it can be a different story with complex searches or specialised themes.
Googling can leave a user drowning in a flood of data or faced with a bunch of irrelevant results.
However, there are plenty of ways to find data without such frustrations.
"In my opinion, the biggest mistake is to always use just one search engine," says Wolfgang Sander-Beuermann who works for SUMA-EV, a German association that promotes free access to knowledge.
This is because each search engine has its own web catalogues and algorithms with which it processes inputs. Therefore the number, type and ordering of the search results differ, based on the search technique used.
"In the case of Google this effect is heightened because the results are personalised," explains Sander-Beuermann.
So the first step is to pick the right search engine for the query. However, the options are limited.
"In effect we now have just Google and Bing," says Dirk Lewandowski, Professor for Information Research and Retrieval at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. "All the others mostly use their result lists."
Those who want global search results that don't skew the result depending on the searcher's location or previous search results should use search engines like MetaGer or Ixquick, which ensure privacy. Both handle search requests without including personal information from the person making the search.
Specialized search engines are another option. "These search engines are limited to a certain part of the web, for example consumer protection or medicine," says Lewandowski.
The big difference here compared to the standard search is that the results are often compiled by humans rather than automated programs. A search this way typically avoids the usual useless results that show up. It gets one quicker to reliable sources.
Examples of such services include the academic search engine BASE operated by Bielefeld University Library in Germany and the Swedish image search engine Picsearch.
The major search engines also offer more specialised services such as Google News and Google Scholar. Extensive information on specific topics can also be found in databanks or link collections. Once the search engine has been selected, the next step is to come up with the right search term. The success of the search will depend on this. "One should always remember it's a computer," says Arleen Becker of the Saxony Consumer Office in Germany.
A few concise search terms are better than whole sentences. And the order of the words also plays a role: "With Paris Hilton you'll get different results than you get with Hilton Paris," says Lewandowski.
It's best to use lower case and singular words when typing in your search query. "If you type in 'flower' you automatically get results for 'flower' and 'flowers,'" says Becker. Today's search engines are so advanced that they also search for related word forms.
So-called operators such as the + and - symbols, AND and OR are useful when result lists are too vague. They can be used to search for word combinations or to exclude certain words. This is particularly useful when dealing with ambiguous words that have several meanings, Becker says.
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