A browser is a program that you can use to move from one Web page to another, but you can also use it to run search tools to perform searches for information and images. You can use words and phrases to search for information on the Web.

 

Follow these steps to get practice using Google, a popular search engine.

 

1. Enter www.google.com in your browser’s Address bar.
2. On the page that appears, enter a search term in the text box and then click the Google Search button.
3. In the search results that appear you can click a link (link text is typically blue) to go to that Web page. If you don’t see the link that you need, click and drag the scrollbar to view more results.

Tip

You can use the Internet Explorer search feature to perform searches (it’s in the upper-right corner of IE, with a little magnifying glass button on the right edge). Change the search engine by clicking the arrow to the right of the Search field and choosing another provider listed there, or click the Find More Providers link to see a more comprehensive list.

 

1. Click the Advanced Search link on the Google home page to change Search parameters.
2. In the resulting Advanced Search page, modify the following parameters:

• Find Web Pages That Have: These options let you narrow the way words or phrases are searched; for example, you can find matches for the exact wording you enter only.
• But Don’t Show Pages That Have: Enter words that you want to exclude from your results. For example, you could search flu and specify you don’t want results that involve swine flu.
• Need More Tools: Here you can control how many results are shown on a page, what language to search for, and which specific file types (for example, only jpeg picture files) or domains (for example, only .edu or education sites) to search.
• Date, Usage Rights, Numeric Range, and More: Click here for even more advanced search parameters.

Tip

Knowing how search engines work can save you time. For example, if you search by entering golden retriever, you typically get sites that contain both words or either word. If you put a plus sign between these two keywords (golden+retriever), you get only sites that contain both words.