Discussion on:

10 tips for smarter, more efficient Internet searching

I thought I knew a lot about searching online using Google but I learned a number of new tricks while researching this article.

The sad fact is that people use search engines improperly. Their searches return more results than can be viewed in hundreds of years of browsing.

If you are like me you find the Google AutoComplete feature annoying. I am disappointed that Google doesn't include a simple way to turn it off with an option on the Preferences page. But the work-around discussed in the article is a good solution.

I can't tell you how many times I have reached a roadblock coding, solving a hardware problem or a Windows issue. Sure, I could have spent hours debugging the problem, and I did in the '90's, but it is so much easier to find the answer online. And that answer is almost always found in a forum. Chances are someone else has solved the very issue you are having and were kind enough to share the answer. You can get to that answer faster by limiting your searches to forums only:

5. Capitalization - Capitalization does matter and search engines do us a great disservice by not distinguishing between upper and lower case for text within quotation marks.

I hope you find these tips helpful. You are welcome to participate in the forum if you have feedback or questions.

I found that if I can't find what I'm looking for in a search session, I can get different (better) results by setting the search aside. Later that day, or even on another day, a reasonable result turns up, even though I use the same search terms.

You search for dbms tutorial and got 1,040,000 results. Why can't I see the 40 thousandth result?

How about a complete list of search engines.I used to have 2 pages on my firefox speed dial but lost them during a crash just before I had a chance to backup

Should be an interesting read through considering over here Wikipedia's Reputation for inaccurate info

For similar problems, I use a software, freeware, called Webferret, made by Softonic.
It can narrow down my searches, and does its job on several engines at the same time.

Wonder