Search Engines & Strategies
Search Engine
A computer program that searches documents, especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of documents in which they are found.
Specialized Search
Allows you to look for news articles, images, videos, or online stores for a specific type of content.
Search Bar
Box for entering text which will be used for a search on the Internet.
What Search Suggestions do
Can give you ideas for search terms that you may not have thought of.
Basic process of performing a search
Each Search Engine has its own unique features, but they share this.
Links
Generally contained at the top of the page of a search engine to allow you to search for a specific type of content.
OR (All Caps)
Include either of two search words in your search.
Advertisements
Included by the search engine. Chosen by the search engine based on your search terms, and they will look a lot like the actual search results.
Built-in Search Bar
Located to the right of the address bar on a web browser page.
Google, Yahoo!, Bing
Most Popular Search Engines
Add to or change the search engines
Most browsers will allow you to do this to the search bar.
Search Term
Needed to begin a search - type this in a search bar and press enter.
Quotes
Put these around a phrase so each word in the phrase isn't searched for separately.
Related searches
Recommended by the search engine; may be more specific than the search terms you used.
Search Suggestions
Similar to related searches, except they happen while you are typing.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.
What happens as you are typing your search term
The search engine will try to guess what you are searching for and it will show a list of search suggestions.
Hyphen (-)
Use at the beginning of a word to exclude search results containing it.
Specific Term
Use these to get the best results. As yourself, "What exactly am I looking for?"
Help Page
Use this on your search engine to get more tips.
NOT (All Caps)
Used in some search engines instead of a hyphen to exclude a word in a search.
Can't read your mind
What a search engine can not do
Too much variety
What a search using a vague term will give you
Regular Search Results
What is generally more effective than using advertisement results.
Search Term
Word or other term used for a search on the Internet.
Tips for improving your searches
1. Take Suggestions 2. Search Phrases 3. Exclude Words. 4. Use OR
Search Results
A list of all of the websites that contain your search terms.
