I found this on one of the Archive Lists. Thought it was very interesting and might be helpful. Marian > SEARCH ENGINE TIPS > by Mike Jarvis > > As genealogists in today's high-tech world, the importance of using search > engines properly is ever increasing. With genealogy related web sites > making up a huge part of our World Wide Web, we would like to share some > search > engine tips that perhaps a few you will find helpful. There is much that > could be written about this, but we will focus only on a few tips that we > find most helpful. We use [ and ] to indicate terms that would be written > in a search box. > > First - The use of quotation marks. When using a combination of words in >>> the search box, the search engine results will include every web page >>> where > these words occur anywhere on that page regardless of whether these words > are immediately next to each other. Using the search term of [family > history ] will result in 109,000,000 hits while ["family history"] within > quotations will result in 5,400,000 hits. This is because in the second > instance it is only finding pages were the words are actually next to or > immediately touching each other. Try this with a family name. For example > my grandmother is named Flora MacDonald. If I search [Flora McDonald ] in > Google it returns 251,000 hits. Putting ["Flora MacDonald"] in quotations > results in 29,600 hits. This is far too many hits and primarily relate to > a prominent woman in Scottish and American history. This is not my > grandmother. However, knowing that my grandmothers middle name was > Hermosa, it makes sense to put ["Flora Hermosa MacDonald"] in the search > box and I > get two hits related specifically to my grandmother. Success! > > Second - The use of the minus sign. This is my second favorite search tip. > Using any combination of words in a search box with the minus sign > directly next to a word that you DO NOT want to find is also helpful. > Using the > search term ["Flora MacDonald" -Scotland -Scottish -"North Carolina" -NC ] > will eliminate any pages from my search that includes the words next to > the minus sign. So I will get only those pages that have my grandmother's > name > and do not have Scotland or North Carolina on the site. This effectively > reduces the number of sites by more than half, from 29,600 to 12,800 hits. > Using quotation marks and the minus sign in combination greatly improves > your search results. > > Third - The use of the plus sign. The plus sign has the effect of > instructing the search engine to give special emphasis to any word where > the plus sign is against it. My grandmother's father was Alexander > MacDonald. > However, not the Alexander MacDonald who was prime minister of Canada. > Using the search term [Flora MacDonald -Scotland -Scottish -"North > Carolina" -NC > +"Alexander MacDonald" -Canada ] gives me 1 hit that directs me to a site > about my grandmother. Here we have combined quotation marks with the minus > sign and the plus sign. > > Fourth - The site search. Let's say that I would like to find Alexander > MacDonald, however, I only want to search a particular domain. I would > simply use the search phrase ["Alexander MacDonald" site:rootsweb.com ]. > Rather than thousands of hits I get 204. Similarly, you could put a minus > sign in front of rootsweb.com so that it searches all domains except > Rootsweb. > > Fifth - The intitle search term. Suppose that you would like to find every > site on the Web with the word genealogy in the title. The search box would > need the term [intitle:genealogy ], which would result in 943,000 hits. > Similarly, use the term [intitle:genealogy -site:ancestry.com ] and you > eliminate 3000 sites related to ancestry.com. One more: try using the term > [intitle:genealogy -site:com ] which will have the effect of eliminating > all domains with the.com extension (commercial sites). > > Sixth - The related search term: If you like to know which sites are > similar > to your own then use the term as follows: [related:USGenWeb.org]. Results > will vary with Google providing 31 similar sites and Yahoo serving up > 35,000 related sites. > > Nearly all of these terms will work in most search engines. If you'd > rather > not type in the shorthand for many of these tips, the search engines will > typically have an advanced search page which will do essentially the same > thing. Try: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en Good hunting!

Thank You Marian for those search tips!! Everything I know `bout `puters, my son has taught me! L.O.L. These tips help you muddle through all the useless stuff. The "advanced search" at Google is the quickest. cousin Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marian M." <MarianMM@cfl.rr.com> To: <INMARION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 8:34 AM Subject: [MARION COUNTY, IN] Fw: Search Engine Information > > > > > I found this on one of the Archive Lists. Thought it was very interesting > and might be helpful. > > Marian > > > >> SEARCH ENGINE TIPS >> by Mike Jarvis >> >> As genealogists in today's high-tech world, the importance of using >> search >> engines properly is ever increasing. With genealogy related web sites >> making up a huge part of our World Wide Web, we would like to share some >> search >> engine tips that perhaps a few you will find helpful. There is much that >> could be written about this, but we will focus only on a few tips that we >> find most helpful. We use [ and ] to indicate terms that would be written >> in a search box. >> >> First - The use of quotation marks. When using a combination of words in >>>> the search box, the search engine results will include every web page >>>> where >> these words occur anywhere on that page regardless of whether these words >> are immediately next to each other. Using the search term of [family >> history ] will result in 109,000,000 hits while ["family history"] within >> quotations will result in 5,400,000 hits. This is because in the second >> instance it is only finding pages were the words are actually next to or >> immediately touching each other. Try this with a family name. For example >> my grandmother is named Flora MacDonald. If I search [Flora McDonald ] in >> Google it returns 251,000 hits. Putting ["Flora MacDonald"] in quotations >> results in 29,600 hits. This is far too many hits and primarily relate to >> a prominent woman in Scottish and American history. This is not my >> grandmother. However, knowing that my grandmothers middle name was >> Hermosa, it makes sense to put ["Flora Hermosa MacDonald"] in the search >> box and I >> get two hits related specifically to my grandmother. Success! >> >> Second - The use of the minus sign. This is my second favorite search >> tip. >> Using any combination of words in a search box with the minus sign >> directly next to a word that you DO NOT want to find is also helpful. >> Using the >> search term ["Flora MacDonald" -Scotland -Scottish -"North >> Carolina" -NC ] >> will eliminate any pages from my search that includes the words next to >> the minus sign. So I will get only those pages that have my grandmother's >> name >> and do not have Scotland or North Carolina on the site. This effectively >> reduces the number of sites by more than half, from 29,600 to 12,800 >> hits. >> Using quotation marks and the minus sign in combination greatly improves >> your search results. >> >> Third - The use of the plus sign. The plus sign has the effect of >> instructing the search engine to give special emphasis to any word where >> the plus sign is against it. My grandmother's father was Alexander >> MacDonald. >> However, not the Alexander MacDonald who was prime minister of Canada. >> Using the search term [Flora MacDonald -Scotland -Scottish -"North >> Carolina" -NC >> +"Alexander MacDonald" -Canada ] gives me 1 hit that directs me to a site >> about my grandmother. Here we have combined quotation marks with the >> minus >> sign and the plus sign. >> >> Fourth - The site search. Let's say that I would like to find Alexander >> MacDonald, however, I only want to search a particular domain. I would >> simply use the search phrase ["Alexander MacDonald" site:rootsweb.com ]. >> Rather than thousands of hits I get 204. Similarly, you could put a minus >> sign in front of rootsweb.com so that it searches all domains except >> Rootsweb. >> >> Fifth - The intitle search term. Suppose that you would like to find >> every >> site on the Web with the word genealogy in the title. The search box >> would >> need the term [intitle:genealogy ], which would result in 943,000 hits. >> Similarly, use the term [intitle:genealogy -site:ancestry.com ] and you >> eliminate 3000 sites related to ancestry.com. One more: try using the >> term >> [intitle:genealogy -site:com ] which will have the effect of eliminating >> all domains with the.com extension (commercial sites). >> >> Sixth - The related search term: If you like to know which sites are >> similar >> to your own then use the term as follows: [related:USGenWeb.org]. Results >> will vary with Google providing 31 similar sites and Yahoo serving up >> 35,000 related sites. >> >> Nearly all of these terms will work in most search engines. If you'd >> rather >> not type in the shorthand for many of these tips, the search engines will >> typically have an advanced search page which will do essentially the same >> thing. Try: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en Good hunting! > >