Hyena's guide to using search engines to their full potential
From OLSEncyclopedia
I bet a lot of you younger members usually go 'Gee, I wonder how you even found that thread, link, or info!'. Well, here are the steps and tips of using search engines.
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1. Know that you are not always going to 'get lucky'
Be preapred to lose some mintues or hours if the keyword is too board or using many different keywords to get links in a search engine. And that you may have to go through numberous links before you even find exactly what you are looking for. And there's a good chance that certain keywords may not bring up what you are looking for.
Example: Typing in 'Zarove' to find the "Everyone gather around. A Fight!" thread on the Message board's search engine will bring up too many links, while typing the keyword 'muffin' instead will get to it for some reason.
Not only is 'Hyena' going to bring up the animal on Google, but also products and companies that use that name. Typing in "Spotted Hyena" will narrow it down a bit, but may take out other links if you were looking for the speices in general.
2. Search Engines can search links in other languages
Not only can you search for links on Outlaw Star, but for it's title in Japanese: Seihō Bukyō Autorō Sutā or 星方武侠アウトロースター. The problem being that if you can't read any webpage you find, the best you can go by is babelfish or engrish.
Sometimes you may have to find the alternate titles to a series online and copy and paste it in a search engine.
3. There are other search engines besides Google.
Sure, it's the main one right now, but you can use a few others to get anything that might have fallen through the cracks in your search.
4. Use everything and the kitchen sink
Advanced search, quotation marks, minuses (Outlaw -Star), anything and everything you can use to find it.
5. Expect dead ends
And there's a chance a few keywords probably won't have any links to them or only one link as a result. In fact there's a Google game designed for finding keywords with one hit, Googlewhack.
6. Don't be afraid to ask board members if you are having any trouble
It's always nice to have a helping hand that may be able to find what you are looking for if it's very specific and you just can't find it. So don't be afraid to ask.
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