Water, Water Every Where

Finding Web Sites in the Wild

Many of the more common Internet search engines or directories will provide tip pages on improving your odds in an Internet search. For example:

At Google*:

Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results.

If a common word is essential, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a space before the "+" sign.)

Another method for doing this is a phrase search, which means putting quotation marks around 2 or more words. Common words in a phrase search (e.g., "where are you") are included in the search.

At Yahoo!*:

Many Yahoo! users usually use the phrase search {putting quotation marks around 2 or more words}. However by clicking on the advanced search button, you can use their options to narrow your search.

At Ask Jeeves*:

Famous for allowing you to phrase your search as a question, Ask Jeeves recognizes question and phrase {quotation marks are unnecessary} searches. There is a help section if you run into trouble.