| 6 Quick Tips to Help You Search Better |
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| MetaCrawler makes searching easy, but there are a few tricks that can help you get your results even easier. Here's how: |
| 1. | Choose Your Terms Carefully
The words you enter in the search box will have the most direct impact on the results you receive. For that reason, we suggest that you use the most direct words you can. For example, if you're looking for information about the ABC company's model of wireless phone, enter "ABC wireless phone model 123" or "ABC phone model 123" and NOT "wireless phones" or "ABC phones". |
| 2. | Use Appropriate Spacing
MetaCrawler recognizes any spaces that you enter in the search box, so search with the correct spaces included. If you search "stereo components" you will most likely receive a list of companies and sites related to stereo equipment. Searching "stereocomponents" will probably return similar results, but may also include a specific site (if there was a stereocomponents.com), a band name, or any other exact match for stereocomponents without a space. |
| 3. | Use Terms In Correct Order
Simple enough, right? Enter "car shows" and you're going to be getting results about various car shows, clubs, recaps of past events, etc. Enter "show cars" and you're going to get specific information about specific cars used in shows, how to prepare a car for shows, etc. |
| 4. | Gain Some Extra Focus
MetaCrawler's Are You Looking For feature helps you narrow down your search so you find exactly what you're searching for. Are You Looking For, featured on the left side of MetaCrawler's results pages, lists the main categories found within your search results. These categories are derived from common words and phrases found in the pages that match your search. When you click on a word or phrase under Are You Looking For, MetaCrawler adds that word or phrase to your original search term and gives you more specific results. For example, if you searched for the term "insurance", MetaCrawler would organize the various categories of insurance on the left side of the results page. Clicking one of those categories automatically repeats the search and gives you new results based on the words or phrases included. Click on the category "health", and you would receive results for "insurance" and "health". That means better-focused search terms to work with, and thus better focused results. |
| 5. | Use Search Categories
If you're looking for a specific kind of results, use the category radio buttons located near the search box to search for a specific kind of result. Want pictures of celebrities? Search images. Looking for a certain song? Try Audio/MP3. Using the categories provides another way to target the exact results you're looking for. |
| 6. | Use Advanced Search
MetaCrawler has a special Advanced Search page that allows you to increase the accuracy of your single search. Some of the options include filtering by domain, language or date. Advanced Search applies these characteristics to one search only. |
