Part 2: Searching Strategies
Last time we talked about browsers and search engines. In this post we’ll talk about how to use them!
When you’re searching for anything you’ll generally get more results with a vague search but those results might not be what you want. When a search is more detailed there’ll be fewer results but they may be more relevant. The words that you type into a search are called your search string. Sometimes you need to experiment with a few different search strings to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Searches shouldn’t use full sentences and they don’t have to be grammatically correct. Think about what you’re looking for, how you’d ask someone to help, and then break out the most important parts.
“I’m looking for a recommendation for new mystery books.” You’d search: new mystery book recommendation. If you weren’t finding anything useful you could try adding words: new mystery thriller book recommendation or 2021 mystery thriller book recommendation.
You can use searches to solve any number of problems too. For example you might go into an automotive store and ask, “What oil goes into a 2010 Toyota Corolla?” You’d search: 2010 Toyota Corolla oil. Using a search to solve a problem is almost always the easiest first step in troubleshooting for a solution.
If you’re not sure what to search or if you’re missing vocabulary using a search engine with autocomplete suggestions can be helpful (Google has this capability). This can be really useful when trying to solve a technology problem where a term or acronym isn’t known.
Here’s a video with some extra tips and reinforcement: