We discussed
lots of tips and tricks in last 11 articles in
this series. It's time to look at traps or common
mistakes in searching. These are mistakes, blunders
and gaffes that happen very often.
Barking
Up The Wrong Tree
Perhaps the biggest mistake that
we often commit unwittingly is to search in wrong
places. Yahoo! Google et al are great search tools
and usually capable of answering 80% search queries.
However, there are about 20% odd queries that
can not be answered satisfactorily using general
purpose search engines. You need a special tool
- specialized search engine. We have already discussed
enough on specialized search engines including
resources in the Net in past issues - so no more
discussion is required. However, we need to be
aware about them and be prompt to find and use
them in 20% odd queries that need special attention.
Beating Around
The Bush
Perhaps the next most common mistake
is selection of right keyword. More often, our
search keywords are very broad - almost vague.
If you always get lots of unwanted junk in your
search result with very few relevant pages - its
time to look very closely at your search keywords
and of course how you search.
The need of the hour is to be specific
- very very specific. If you are not satisfied
with search result and feel you are missing relevant
pages - then and only then gradually broaden the
search.
A Rose
is a rose is a ROSE...
Unfortunately, for some search engines
- a ROSE is not a rose, neither Rose. Some of
us have the habit of using all capital letters
- some people do not like them in e-mails and
some search engines treat them specially.
You should be aware of the fact that
some engines are case sensitive while others are
not. The former differentiates between rose and
ROSE and Rose. So, if you search for 'BUYER' in
such a search engine - only pages with word 'BUYER'
be retrieved leaving pages with words 'buyer'
or 'Buyer'
As a rule of thumb, it's a good idea
to always use lower case letters when you search.
This typically returns results that contain both
upper and lower case letters. This is usually
a good thing for proper nouns like names or places,
which use initial upper case letters anyway. But
it might cause you to miss other documents where
case-sensitivity is less important.
Closer
Look at Origin
Search engines by default search
for word(s) in whole page unless instructed otherwise.
Using a facility called 'Field Searching', you
can ask it to look for the word(s) only at specific
sections of a HTML page. Field searching usually
results in cutting down junk.
For example, you can ask search engines
to search for words only in Title section. Title
searching is a valuable tool in the searcher's
arsenal for getting closer to a subject search
on the Web. It can be a great way to narrow results
and can often give a search more of a subject
focus.
Most search engines support field
searching. Usually the facility is available via
command line and form.
These are some of the more common
mistakes. Watch out for more around you and share
with us your experience/views.
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