IS YOUR USUAL SEARCH PROVIDING EXCLUSIVE RESULTS?

There’s a lot more to utilizing a search engine than many people realize. In fact, many people believe that using the most popular search engine is the best way to access the information they need, when in fact this could be one of the worst ways to go about the business of finding pertinent information. It’s often so that when a person types a search term into the leading google.com, the results pages come up with many options containing the requested terminology- often hundreds of pages multiplied many times over with matches to the original search term. Even for an experienced researcher, the typical results are too often so generalized that the task of simply narrowing down the results is a time-consuming and frustrating process. Those who are not as experienced in narrowing their results become swamped with the task of clicking on each link and viewing the page to determine whether or not it suits their needs. So much valuable time is spent sifting through pages and pages of links to possible success.

At the same time, ask around what search engine people use, and you will likely deduce that over 95% of your queries come back with the Google response. When it’s not, it’s probably Yahoo or Ask, two of the other leading search engines today. Be aware however, that there are hundreds- and probably thousands- more search engines available out there. So why does most every person out there keep on going back to the same one(s) over and over again? Because they just don’t know!

Leave the toolbar behind for awhile and go back to research. Find out on your own terms which search engine will work best for you. That’s right, it’s convenient to have the search bar right up there with many of the applications you use, but the brand-specific tool bar actually steals away new possibilities, with your consent of course. It is too habitual.

All it takes is investing a little time to get lucky. Trade some of the time you usually dedicate to ping-ponging around the Google and yahoo results for time invested in researching new search engines. You’ll likely be very glad you did. A new search engine can be so refreshing, like slipping on a new pair of jeans- so comfortable that you’ll wear them again and again. No need to get rid of the shrunken ones with holes, but you can definitely put them on the back burner in favor of the better fit.