How do I search the web for only the information I need

[Crafty]

I have had this problem for as long as i can remember. I search for some information in Google that I need, but I am given other information that is nothing to do with what I am looking for. Just how do you filter all the other rubbish out and come up with only the things you need to see? Can some please help me with this because most of my searches are useless at the moment.

[soybean]

This should help: 10 Tips for Conducting a More Effective Google Search

By the way, I found this reference by searhing on conducting effective google searches.

[Salmon Trout]

One very basic thing that I do is to use quote marks wisely. Typing cheese boat into (let's say) Google will find you lots of pages with cheese on and lots of pages with boat on and maybe some pages with both on, whereas "cheese boat" will find pages with that exact phrase. If I wanted to exclude pages with the word cheddar from the results I would use a minus sign before a word "cheese boat" -cheddar. These tips from Google are good value:

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1221265&answer=134479&rd=1

Each search engine has its own help section which is always worth reading.

In the material quoted, some searches are enclosed in square brackets (they are not part of the search)

Keep it simple.
If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place, or product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.

Think how the page you are looking for will be written.
A search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying [ my head hurts ], say [ headache ], because that's the term a medical page will use. The query [ in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? ] is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query [ bats are considered good luck in ] or even just [ bats good luck ], because that is probably what the right page will say.

Describe what you need with as few terms as possible.
The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example, [ weather cancun ] is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer [ weather report for cancun mexico ].

Choose descriptive words.
The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,' 'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need. For example, [ celebrity ringtones ] is more descriptive and specific than [ celebrity sounds ].Search within a specific website (site:)
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.

Terms you want to exclude (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.

Fill in the blanks (*)
The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products (go to next page and next page -- we have many products). The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

Search exactly as is (+)
Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

The OR operator
Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)

[soybean]

Some videos on searching: http://www.grovo.com/google-search/conducting-a-basic-search

Also, you may be interested in this: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,121742.msg801208/topicseen.html#msg801208

[rthompson80819]

Personally, when I do a search, if what I'm looking for isn't on the first page, I reword the search terms.  Almost always, if the result doesn't appear on the first page, the search term wasn't worded properly.

[hurricane]

You can also do an advanced search, which helps a little bit. Check it out because it allows you to refine your search. And I guess you know by now, that putting things in quotes, limits your results to items that have the same word string.
 It would be helpful to know what types of searches you are doing that aren't giving you the results you want. For me the biggest problem I have is when I am searching for news, I want the most recent ones on top, but that is where the advanced search helps.
You should also note that a few of the first results are sponsored links - they pay to be at the top of the list.
There is also an option to block results from certain sites, which also helps narrow it down. So if you notice that a lot of the useless sites are coming up, click on block these sites, but it only shows up sometimes.
There is a red marker on the left side of the page called search tools, that helps you narrow it down.