Searching the Internet for those Golden Nuggets of Information

Searching for those Golden Nuggets: It's all about narrowing the focus!

Searching for golden nuggets of information is every Internet researcher's quest. So much information is now available; and that volume promises to grow as the Internet evolves. Thus, it is important to learn the best ways to find what you are looking for; to hone in on those golden nuggets, and let the 'fools-gold' stay in the archives!

Understanding the search engines (Google, et al):
Since Google has become the number one search engine of the Internet (averaging over 50% of all search queries); it is important to understand a little about how Google (and others) actually come up with some of the pages and sites for a particular query.

I will not get into the mathematical algorithms and formulas that the various search engines use; mostly since I really don't understand all that stuff; but suffice it to say that most of the search engines use some pretty complicated search techniques to instantaneously search and return results 'as close as they can' to the original query.

Keep in mind that the search engines do not really think a whole lot of small, often insignificant words; words like: 'I', 'for', 'or', 'and', 'is', and the like. However, since many search engines are based on Boolean logistics (i.e., recognizing 'true' or 'false' scenarios), it is possible to force the search engines to eliminate and/or add to certain sets of data for a particular search query. After all, sometimes those small 'insignificant' words are important to searches.

Not quite as good as human thought:
As good and fast as search engines are, they still do not quite always know what our minds are really looking for. Until the day comes (not so far off!) where we can simply THINK about what we want information for, and have the Internet return only things which are narrowed down to just what we seek, we need to be able to tell in words or in syntax what we want to know.

And, because word-language can be sometimes confusing (i.e., multiple-meanings, punctuations, and the like) the search engines currently have to make some assumptions and guesses; so they return an abundance of related data (though not always closely related); leaving the final 'sifting' to our human brains.

So far, that has worked ok; but going forward, I think it has to get better; and I know it will. Otherwise, we will be sifting through so much data to find those Golden Nuggets that we'll spend all our time doing only that.

Next generation?
Whether or not the search engine hosts (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) have plans to take Internet searching to the level of human-thought interfacing remains to be seen I guess. But, somewhere along the line I think that will be a logical and natural evolutionary step in the advancement of the Internet.

Who wouldn't want an Internet that is capable of returning only 'specific-to-search-criteria' data? How much time could be saved if each time we searched for something we were given only that information which fit all our thought-criteria?

Can we help the search engines narrow the search?
We can actually help search engines to narrow the information they return by 'keeping it simple'. Often, we tend to over-search. By that, I mean we often don't take into account the things the search engines look for or do not look for.

Some handy tricks to help narrow your search:
Since most search engines work in similar ways (though each has its own peculiar formulas and algorithms), we can use some 'syntax' in our searches to refine them so they bring back only the most relevant information to our query. There are a number of characters and words that can be used to keep it simple, as follows:

Sample Google search for 'fast food restaurants in chicago'.

Simple searches:
The most basic searches consist of a series of words, phrases or combination of words and phrases. Sometimes, numbers are included, where necessary.

For example, if we search for "fast food restaurants in Chicago" (not using the quotation marks, since those will affect the search), Google returns 6,720,000 possible hits.

We know the search engines do pretty well at ranking Internet pages, so very likely we will find what we seek on the first or second page of hits. The 6 million plus other hits will likely go unnoticed by most people.

Using quotation marks (" ") can help to narrow searches.

Using syntax - quotation marks (" "):
If we use quotation marks ("fast food restaurants in chicago") in our search, we can see Google has narrowed it down to only 14,100 hits (still way more than we need, of course!).

Most small words are not needed, and can be omitted.

Small words generally not needed:
Note that our search string includes the word 'in', which we know the search engines will not even notice; thus we can eliminate it (fast food restaurants chicago), and we normally come up with pretty much the same as when we used it.

Using plus sign (+) tells the search engine to include terms; the minus sign (-) tells it to omit them.

Using syntax; plus and minus signs ('+, -'):
If we wish to find 'fast food restaurants in chicago' that serve BBQ ribs, we can enter the search as 'fast food restaurants chicago +BBQ ribs', which returns 38,300 hits, with BBQ included.

Combine syntax for more narrowing.

Combining syntax:
We can also combine syntax to help narrow searches. For example, adding quotation marks to "BBQ ribs", forces the search engines to find only those restaurants in Chicago that have something to do with BBQ ribs. The search narrows to 6,700 hits.

Google shortcuts can help narrow the focus.

More:
There are numerous other search syntax helps, and there are also 'shortcuts' that Google uses, like 'define:', 'what is', 'books', 'movie', 'site', and more.

See the links below for more helpful search engine tips and syntax assistance as you attempt to Google for Golden Nuggets!

Tips & Warnings

• KISS - 'Keep It Simple Searches'
• Try various search syntax and shortcut combinations for focused results.

Resources

• GoogleGuide Cheatsheet
• GoogleGuide Glossary
• Google Search Tips