How to Do Online Research Better and Faster

A search engine is a tool that you need to learn how to use correctly to find necessary data fast. To do this, many tricks make the search process more effective. Adding punctuation marks, as well as some commands in English, helps you achieve the desired result. So, how to use them to do better and faster research?

Use Different Search Engines

When searching for information, it’s better to use at least two search engines. Google is the first one that comes to your mind. Yet, try to pick up another one. The more, the better. 

The fact is that each search engine indexes pages of sites in opposite ways. In this regard, even the simplest query in two search engines can lead you to different results.

Many users quit after taking a quick look at the first two or three positions in the search results. Don’t do that. For some reason, you’re sure that only the most reliable and high-quality information gets to the top of the search results. In this regard, companies pay a lot of money to make their site take the first search positions.

Look at the following example. In most, search results for a single word query start with a link to the corresponding Wikipedia article. And although the information from the free encyclopedia is much more trustworthy today than it was years ago, you shouldn’t limit yourself to it. 

By the way, a link to a scientific work that describes in detail exactly what the user is looking for will be on the twelfth or twenty-fifth page. It’s simply because users don’t access it that often compared to Wikipedia.

That is why you don’t need to take the information that you’ve found on the first two or three pages. Don’t be fooled, and check out a few more sites. There may be more relevant and less superficial information. Eventually, it’s vital to understand whether the information you’ve found is reliable enough.

Also, all search engines react differently to many aspects. They are the frequency of the use of words in a sentence, the presence or absence of punctuation marks, the word order, and so on.

Search Correctly

It’s the most important and effective technique for searching for information on the Internet. A search containing one word will happen to have several million results. A query with two words will be significantly opposite in terms of results number. And if your query consists of four or six words, you’ll see only a few thousand pages.

For instance, indicate all important information in your query. If you’re looking for a help homework site, you need to spell it precisely. That is, if you need a research paper, put it in the following way “pay someone to do my research paper” in a search engine and you will find WriteMyPaperHub among the first websites which write academic papers for students 24/7. Thus, the search system instantly understands that you need a homework helper portal to write your research project or term paper from scratch.

Moreover, the more accurate and competent the query is, the higher the possibility that you’ll have success. Besides, don’t forget that search engines can’t always correct spelling errors in queries. 

Use Punctuation Marks and Search Operators

Not many users know that punctuation marks can facilitate the search process. They can make the search results relevant to you. 

Thus, for an effective search, take the next steps:

1. Make an accurate phrase for your query;
2. Include the keywords;
3. Use punctuation marks and search operators.

Let’s start with quotes. If you want to search for a specific phrase or word, enclose your query in quotation marks. Thanks to this, the system understands that the words need to be searched in the exact order and form.

The minus sign allows you to search for and exclude certain words from the query. For example, if you enter “Hawking-Stephen”, the search engine will give you information only on the word “Hawking”. At the same time, it excludes all sites related to Stephen Hawking from the search results. Also, the plus sign before the word, on the contrary, indicates to the search engine that it’s a priority.

If you know for sure where you need to look for information, enter the site name in your search query. Thus, you can significantly speed up the search process. To do this, use the “site:” in your search query. Then, specify the address of the required Internet resource after the colon.

If you need to find data for a specific period, use dots. For example, if you want to get any information about the IELTS for a certain period, the search query must be composed as follows: “IELTS 2018..2020”

You can search for all words in the text but without quotes. For example, if you can’t remember a poem or song, but do remember a few words, use the “allintext:” command. And then add those words after the colon.

Use the at the sign for search in social networks. To find a page of a certain person or brand on Twitter or Facebook, put @ before the query. Then, indicate the social network and name after space.

To search for books, images, or videos enter the necessary query in the search. Then, the “filetype:” and the format like png, fb2, mp4, and so on.

As you can see, many search tricks are extremely easy to master. Thanks to them, you can find what you need without spending a lot of time. 

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