We have
discussed a variety of ways for performing simple
search. For most searches, the tips and commands
discussed is sufficient to get reasonably good
result.
However, there are times when simple
search functions can not provide satisfactory
result. In such cases, one should opt for advanced
features provided by all search engines.
Limit the
Scope of your Search
Sometimes, we know exactly the word
or phrase or event we want but search engines
display too many pages that only confuses us.
In such cases, use limiting factors or filters
to narrow down the scope of your search and cut
down all unwanted junk.
Some of the popular filters, usually
available in Advanced version of a search engine
are:
-
1. Language
-
Use of this filter drastically
cuts down number of unwanted pages displayed
-
2. Occurrence
-
By specifying preferred place
of occurrence of a word, you may drastically
prune number of displayed pages. Some of the
popular options are:
-
For example, if you wish to restrict
your search for 'World Trade Organization'
in title section of a page only, the search
expression in Google will be allintitle: "World
Trade Organization"
-
3. Time
-
You may specify how old should
be the displayed pages by specifying a time
limit, e.g.
- Last three months
- Last six months
- Last One year
- Anytime (default)
-
4. Exact Phrase
-
If the search phrase is known,
use it in advanced version to filter out unwanted
junk For example, if you are looking for commercial
agents in Sweden, the Gogle search expression
will look like +sweden +"commercial agent"
-
5. Domain Search
-
This is very helpful when you
know the website you want to search but aren't
sure where the information is located within
that site.
For example, if you are looking
for website of Dept of Chemicals and you know
that host for most Govt websites is National
Informatics Center (NIC) - you may search
Google with following search expression:
department of chemicals site: http://www.nic.in
Limit The Format of your Search Result
Sometimes, we want documents in a
specified format only. Most search engines allow
us to search for
-
Adobe Acrobat documents (PDF
format)
-
Microsoft Word Documents (.doc
files)
-
Microsoft Power Point Presentation
(.ppt files)
-
Microsoft Excel file (.xls files)
etc.
So, if you are looking for documents
on 'Handbook of Export Import Policy' in PDF format
the search expression in Google will be as follows:
Handbook of Export Import Policy filetype:pdf
There are many such powerful search
tools that can significantly improve your search
result and at the same time reduce search time.
Unfortunately, there is little standardization
among search engines and one has to familiarize
oneself with search engine specific commands.
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