Yep, while Web search has come a long way in the past decade, it's not quite up to reading minds (yet). Instead of typing in a long question for your next search engine query, try these tips instead:
- Use keywords or keyphrases. Be as specific as possible.
- Eliminate unnecessary words or punctuation. Most search engines don't even bother to recognize common words such as "and" or "the" anymore.
- Use quotes. If you are looking for a specific phrase, use quotes so the phrase will be searched for as one entity instead of separate words. For example, "boston red sox" instead of boston red sox.
- Factbites:Factbites endeavors to pull facts from web pages or online encyclopedias and presents them in your search results. The obvious glitch to this whole process is determining which is fact and which is fiction; however, I found that Factbites did a pretty good job of weeding out the dross.
- Answers.com:Answers.com is an innovative way to find answers on the Web, without searching for them. Instead of going to your favorite search engine and typing in a query, then sorting through various links to find the answer that you are looking for, Answers.com "displays quick, snapshot answers with concise, reliable information."
- Brainboost:BrainBoost is an automated question-answering search engine. Here's how it works: you type in a question, and instead of merely matching your search query in page text and titles like other search engines, BrainBoost actually goes the next logical step and sorts through the search results for you, then extracts the answer to your question.
