2. Try a directory: Yahoo is not a search engine. It's a directory. Directories list Web sites, as opposed to pages, sorted by category. Directories include only the titles and descriptions of Web sites, not the text of their Web pages. So they have less info, but may be a better place to start. Examples include Yahoo and Google's implementation of the free, public Open Directory. Have you noticed that link at the top of Google to "Directory"? That's it.
Directories are made by people, not compiled by computers, so they're sometimes quicker to follow the news, and you get less chaff. They are organized in categories, like a library, encouraging the serendipity of finding something great next to the one you were looking for. (There is no "next to" in a search engine, there being no shelves.) So use a directory if you're in the journalistic situation of wanting starting, basic information about a common subject, and you're likely to find that information by going in the front door of the site. But use a search engine if you already have formulated a question, and want to find Web pages using the words in your question or that you anticipate will be in the answer. Notice that even Yahoo has an Advanced Search page to look through its half million listed sites. But if you want to find a more obscure bit of information, or any references to a word, then use a search engine, which looks at the text, word by word, of millions of Web pages.
3. Envision the result: Forget keywords when using a search engine. Remember that you're searching the complete text. Don't search for words about the subject. Search for words that will be on the page. Ask yourself, "If I were making the perfect page, just what I'm looking for, what words would I have to use to do it? In a directory you'd search for words about the subject, because that's all that a directory knows. But in a search engine, search for words that must be in the text of the page, because that's all that a search engine knows. If you want a list of children who have lived in the White House, don't think presidential progeny. Think chelsea and clinton and amy and carter and tricia and nixon and "white house." (We'll get to quotation marks below.) If you want a list of Super Bowl sites for the next three years, don't think "super bowl locations." Think 2001 and 2002 and 2003 and "super bowl." Under the theory that any good listing of future sites will also show where the games have been, you might add and 1983 and 1972 and pasadena and "new orleans". Try it! It helps to write down, or at least to imagine writing, the perfect page.
4. Think of it as a zoom lens: The best possible first search will yield no results. Why? Because it's easier to back out from zero than to zoom in from 187,000. What's the first thing you do with a zoom lens on a camera? You zoom in all the way, then pull back until the subject fills the frame. Of course, the most successful search is ultimately one that finds what you're looking for. But first go for broke, then remove one restriction at a time to pull back.
6. Tinker: Expect to search several times. This is the first thing you'd notice by watching over the shoulder of professional news librarians: They don't search once, perfectly. They search over and over, circling the prey. Remove one restriction at a time. (That's the essence of troubleshooting.) Try being more restrictive here, and less there. Then try it the other way around. There is no perfect search, but often there is a pretty good combination of searches. For example, title:"jesse ventura" would insist that "jesse ventura" be in the title of the page. That's a good first step. But if you get nothing in return, you merely have to use your mouse to delete title: and then "search" again to try it without that restriction. Now you still want the governor, but anywhere on the page, not just in the title.
7. Don't scroll: There's no crying in baseball, and there's no scrolling on the Web. If you turn up hundreds or thousands of hits, scrolling through them is unlikely to find the one you want. Better to refine your search. And when you choose a page to look at, remember that you can use your browser's "Find" command to quickly find any instance of your search terms on that one page, just as in a word processor. (Often it's under the "Edit" menu.)
8. Use only what you're sure of: If you want to find a list of states, showing whether each state has the death penalty, you can't assume that the maker of the page will use the words "death penalty." It could be "capital punishment." So use only the word you are sure of, or hedge your bets. So try ("death penalty" or "capital punishment") and texas and missouri and georgia.
9. Use anything you know: You can assume that every state name is on the list of states with or without the death penalty, or it's not the page you're looking for. So think ahead. Include in your search not only states with the death penalty, but states without. Try ("death penalty" or "capital punishment") and texas and minnesota and "new york" and "north dakota." It may seem onerous to type in so many state names, but it's more reliable, and quicker, than scrolling through too many hits.
10. Use what you learn: As you search, whenever you see a fact in the results list or on a page, use it. Go back to the search engine and throw that fact onto the search. The more arcane the item, the more you'll narrow to pages that are just on that subject. For example, if you want a list of Robert Penn Warren's works, and all you know is the most famous one, start with "robert penn warren" and "all the king's men." You'll learn that he also wrote "Blackberry Winter" and "Band of Angels." Instead of reading more Web pages about "All the King's Men," go back: Add and "blackberry winter" and "band of angels" to the search, getting closer to only those pages that list all of his works.
Originally posted on Power Reporting.com
