Help by bartmaguire
Despite the differrences among search engines, however, here are some general tips for searching:
Be specific as possible.
Example: Don't type the word dogs when you really want information on golden retrievers.
Use quotation marks to search for phrases. Enclosing words within double quotes tells the search engine to find only documents in which those words appear side by side. Otherwise, the search engine will look for each term separately and overwhelm you with irrelevant results.
Examples: "stem cells", or "affirmative action"
Use a plus sign (+) before each term or phrase. This tells the search engine to find only web pages that include all the terms that have a plus sign.
Examples: +aids +"holistic treatment", or +Depression +treatment
Use a minus sign (-) when you want to exclude terms and narrow your search.
Examples: butterflies -monarch, or python -monty