The first and most important thing, when searching is to choose the right search engine for your search. Depending on the type of thing you are searching for, and the type of results you want, you will want to use a different search engine. While you will probably develop your own favorite search engines, and you can see a list of some of the big ones on my search engines page, I have some suggestion's for the type of search engines you will want to use for different searches.

If you are looking for information on a popular subject you will probably want to use a general search engine, or a metasearch engine. Specifically, I would recommend using SavvySearch, AltaVista, or Excite. Ask Jeeves can also be useful for finding general information. An example of this type of search might be information on the band Metallica, or the renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

If you are looking for many web sites on a popular topic, or even a somewhat obscure topic, I would suggest using a web ring or a category based search engine, to find the most web sites as quickly and easily as possible. WebRing and LookSmart are very good search engines of these types. This type of search includes looking for web sites about Java programming, or pet care.

Searching for detailed, extremely specific, or obscure information can be a very difficult process, even if the subject itself is popular. For this I would recommend a powerful general search engine, or a metasearch engine. Some of the best search engines fall into these categories. Northern Light, SavvySearch, and MetaCrawler are all excellent search engines, both for this purpose, and in general. This would include looking for information on an obscure video game, or trying to find the quotations from Nicolaus Copernicus, or a online text of his book in Latin.

Once you have found the correct type of search engine for your search the most important thing is to use that engine to its maximum capability. The two biggest parts of this are using search engine commands or operators, and using the other advanced searching features a search engine offers. Most often there will be a tab, or link, near the search button on a search engine, that says "advanced" or "customize". By using these features you can get much more relevant results on any type of search.

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