Apparently blog readers love lists about tips they can use immediately, and I know people love tips in simple, brief easy to implement list, because I do! So here is one for the GTD fan or productivity junkies!
These tips are easy to pickup, high impact and you can use them today. In a way they are about getting back to the basics of search!
1. Read the Search Help Page
This one seems trivial and almost idiotic but it will more than likely give you the biggest bang for your time spent.
We have all probably read the search help page one or two times in our life, but unless you read it last month, I have news for you: things have changed! There are likely to be new features released and advanced functionalities add since you last read the help page. By reading the help page, I don’t mean read it from page to page but focus on the areas that you think you can benefit the most, it might be the “What’s new” section if you have heard some new image search features that you want to know about or the “Advanced Search” section if you believe you are ready to take your search to the next level.
Here is the Google Search Help, Yahoo Search Help and Windows Live Search Help
2. Get a Search Tool Bar
And Learn what you can do with them. I love my search tool bar and that’s because it give me huge productivity boost as a searcher. I even blogged about it!
3 Reasons Why Search Toolbar Makes You A Better Searcher
Install search tool bar from your favourite search engine and know the features offered in them will save you time, increase your productivity and allow you to use your browser more as a powerful search platform than a HTML viewer.
With a search tool bar installed, did you know you can:
- Execute a search for images right from the search tool bar!
- Highlight the keywords you searched for within the page (Huge time saver!)
If you already have Google Toolbar, you can always try out Yahoo Toolbar or Windows Live Toolbar.
3. Try an Alternative Search Engine
People are so accustomed to Google that they think it’s the end all an be all of search. Well, its not. Whilst even Google has a huge range of specialist search engines, there is a wealth of alternative search engines that can make your search experience more productive today.
I can think of least three cases where Google is trumped by alternative search engines (and that I have blogged about here!)
- Blog search using Technorati: Google Blog Search Is No Good!
- Visual search using Cooliris: The New Visual Search Experience
- Product comparison/review search using Retrevo: Tell me more about this product
Check out the Search 1.x search engine directory for more alternative search engines and why trying them out can sometimes make you a better searcher.
4. Believe That You Can Find It!
This one is a mental tip, but it’s one that will get most people. Often when people fail to find the exact information they are looking for, they give up or settle for “good enough” content where there are often much better material out there on the web
If it’s out there on the web, there is a way to search for and find it, and my experience has taught me that this statement is largely true, I am always amazed at the stuff you can find on the web using the search engines.
For example, did you know that you can find a huge listing of active webcam by using Google ?
By changing your mentality, you are more than likely to persist with it and when there is a will, there is a way, you just have to know how to search for it!
What’s your favourite tip when it comes to search?
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Great list, thanks for sharing !
I am a big fan of the search toolbar myself.