Search engines constantly change their search tools, so some of the information below may go out of date. Check the instructions for searching given by each search engine.

Changing the Range of a Search (Boolean Operators)

a. Using AND (+) looks for pages with all the words you've written (not needed in Google).

b. Using OR looks for pages with any of the words you've written.

c. Using NOT (-) removes one part of your search. For example Vancouver -Canada should lead you to Vancouver Washington, a much smaller city.

Other Tips

1. Learn what is likely to be on the Internet and what is not usually on the Internet. Copyrighted material is often not freely available.
2. Go straight to the organization or site that probably has the information you want. Specialized subject directories will help here.
3. Guess a URL by typing <www.thecompanyname.com> Your browser should fill in http://
4. Slice off parts of a URL if you get a "file not found" message. This is sometimes a problem when sites have been updated and a page has a new URL. Often it's still available, but with a different URL.
5. Use a specialized subject directory to find hard-to-find URLs.
6. Use a phrase search on search engines to limit your hits. Enclose the words you are looking for in quotation marks. The search engine should produce hits on pages that have only that phrase. For example, typing "communicative writing" gets far fewer hits that typing communicative writing.
7. Most of the major search engines use different databases that are organized differently, so you should use more than one search engine for your topic.
8. Start by doing a search using the same words on different search engines.
9. Phrase searching. To narrow your results, put a phrase inside double quotation marks. For example, "communicative grammar".
10. Use a link search on Lycos, MSN Search, Alta Vista, or HotBot to see what kind of sites your site is linked to. A site linked to universities or government agencies is more likely to be reliable.
11. To limit your search to non-commercial sites, add -com to your search phrase.

Links

Charles Kelly has some good suggestions for speeding up searches on the Net here.