Searching the World Wide Web - Smarten up!

The Internet is terrific resource. It contains hundreds of websites dedicated to thousands of topics. With so many topics it is easy to get lost.

So know the type of search tools and learn some general search tips to make your search more profitable. However, use caution when searching the web as anyone can post websites about topics that interest them and these sites are always not accurate. So, learn how to evaluate web sites as all the information on these web sites is not always trustworthy.

As we live in an information age and the amount of information available is so mind bogglingly huge, we need to evaluate the sources from where we get the information. We need to constantly sift and select so that we can make responsible choices that we do not regret later on.

One of the things that you need to do is to critically evaluate the information you find. Then weed out the information that is useless. (You will need to discern between the useful and the useless.) It will take time and skill but keep at it!

Here are some tips for searching the web -

• Take the help of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, HotBot, Go, Lycos, Web Crawler, Excite to search for key words and phrases.

• Use terms that are specific to your search. Avoid using broad terms as they will result in thousands of sites.

• Use Boolean operators like 'and' 'or' 'not' 'near' etc.

• You can also use Meta Search engines like Rede Search, Ask Jeeves, Big Hub, DogPile, C4, All4One . These usually search other less well known search engines and specialized sites.

• Use catalouges and indexes likeYahoo and About.com which list websites by categories. These will have sub categories which will help you locate sites related to your topic.

Most important: While searching select your site carefully. Read about who developed the site and whether it is credible.