There’s practically no information that isn’t within the reach of the determined seeker, thanks to the web. Former reservations about the validity and accuracy of some of the chief information sites, led by Wikipedia, have been slowly evaporating. Today, educators happily direct students to such sites for their researches into the topics and projects they are studying at school. When an illness strikes, a celebrity dies or technology breaks down, each of us reach for our favorite search engine.
Exploring the plethora of information on a given topic on the Internet can be absorbing, although also frustrating. The time spent tracking down really relevant and authoritative content can give the more mature user a pang of longing for the old days when a trek to the reference section of the nearest library – during opening hours, of course – was the solution to information retrieval.
Everyone who regularly uses the internet develops a sixth sense about which combinations of words or terms to type into that search field for the most targeted results. The level of elation felt when the first result to appear actually matches your requirements will depend on how much of a life you have, but this hit rate is rare.
A few handy tips for obtaining accurate results follow:
• Avoid the use of plurals.
• Make use of options that offer advanced searches or allow for preferences to be entered.
• Include in the search field the precise noun or adjective that you want to see turn up in your results. For example, if a hand-dyed pashmina is your wish, be sure to use those very words.
• When looking for restaurant or hotel reviews, type a negative phrase such as ‘avoid X hotel’ and you will turn up the most honest appraisals!
• Equally, if checking the authenticity of any type of agreement, type the name of the organization with the word ‘scam’ to discover how others feel about the subject.
Happy searching!