Reference number: CH000082 How to find information on the Internet?
Question:
How to find information on the Internet.
Answer:
Most information is found on the Internet by utilizing a search engines. A search engine is a
web service that uses web robots to query millions of pages on the Internet and creates an index of those web pages. Users can then
use these services to quickly and easily find the information they may be looking for. When searching for information on the Internet
keep the below things in mind.
Surround searches in quotes
If you are searching for multiple common words such as computer and
help, it is a good idea to place quotes around the full search to get
better results. For example, "computer help".
Be aware of stop words
Many search engines will strip out common words they refer to as
stop words for each search that is performed. For example, instead of searching for
why does my computer not boot, it'd search for documents with
computer and boot. To help prevent these from being stripped surround
the search with quotes.
Tip: If stop words are not important, simply don't enter
them into your search.
Familiarize yourself with booleans
Many search engines allow booleans,
which can prevent results you many not want from being displayed. Although
common booleans include "and", "or", and/or "not"
most search engines have replaced these keywords with symbols. For example, if
you were wanting to find computer help but didn't want to return any results for
Linux computer help you'd type computer help -linux the -linux indicates
to exclude any results containing the word linux.
Know what features are available
Many search engines allow for additional syntax to help limit your search strings. For example, Google enables users to search for links to a particular page by typing "link:"
and many other keywords at the beginning of the search query. For example, to see who is linked to Computer Hope you'd type:
link:http://www.computerhope.com.
See our Google tips section for
additional tips and features you may not be aware of.
Try alternative search engines
Finally, if you continue to not find what you are looking for, try a different search engine. A listing of search engines can be found on our network search engine section.
Additional information:
- See document CH000721 for additional information about other things that can be done on the Internet.
- See our Internet tips section for additional search tips and other Internet related tips.
- Additional information about locating software or drivers for your computer can be found on document CH000644.
| 
