Google for Dummies (A guide to better Googleing)
You've all heard of Google, and most of you should have used it by now. If not, shame on you. Google provides us with one of the best search pools on the net, constantly refreshing its meta data lists daily, quit possibly leading to world domination.
But anyway, lets get on with the subject matter.
First, we need to define "element." An element is a subject in which we are referenceing.
For this tut, lets use my name as the main element:
Since I'm the only one using the name "ncyphe" on the web, you can see that I have been very busy. (what you can't see is the countless number of pages that also come up; ranging from forum posts to YouTube comments)
Now to start narrowing down the results, let's say that I want to see anything related to onrpg. What we do to accomplish this is to add a "+" to the begining of the statement. Most search engines, however, ussually make the [space] bar act the same way, so ya'll probably have been doing this many times with out knowing.
As you can see, the first page contains only sites with references to the name OnRPG. (note: the Voyage Century reference was that of a beta guild I created, hopeing to get OnRPG members to join, but ultimatly failed)
Now, the problem with "+" is that it treats every word as it's own element. Thus, with every word, any page with that that element will be added to the search. So, if you were to reference "Tale of Two Cities", the results might contain a url for road maps.
To counteract this, we use the quote feature by surrounding our phrase with "", this expands the element to include the reference to the ENTIR phrase only.
So, let's add to the search, "Earth and Beyond".
As you can see, we get my thread from many months ago, referenceing the ongoing work to create an emulator for a DEAD mmo.
To work with some other features, let's look back at the origanal results.
Well, let's say we don't want to see any results featuring "Director" or "Adult Swim".
To remedy this, we add a "-" before any element. Adding a "-" before a set of "" will work just as well as if referenceing a single element; however, it will only leave out references to the entire phrase only. (Meaning: if we do [-"sad cats"] we will still see results for "sad" and "cats")
As you can see, we have omited "Director" and "Adult Swim" from the results, and thus improved our chances of finding what I wanted to search for.
With Google, you have a chance to find whatever you want; however, searching is not the only thing Google can do.
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Dictionary: add "Definition:" to the front of an element, and you'll quickly receive links to online dictionary's, with said definition.
Spell Check: As you could see, Google continually wanted to see if I ment "Ncipher" instead of "ncyphe". If you mispell any element, Google will include a link to a search with the elements corrected.
Note: Becoming too specific will limit your results to nothing. To become an expert at Googling will take time, but alas, Google is quit possibly your best tool for locating anything on the net.
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Please, add any additional information to help Google Newbies alike.
(If a mod stickies this, I thank you for your respect and honor)