How do I narrow my search results?

A common problem for many people is getting too long and unwieldy a list of results when using a search engine to find information on the web. It only takes a little effort and thought – and understanding of how search engines work – to retrieve a shorter and more relevant list.

The search engine looks for matches for the words in its index and returns the results in the form of a list of hits. Popular search engines include Google, Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask.

Most search engines can guide you through making your searches more precise - look for an ’Advanced search’ link that leads to an online form that will prompt you for more information about what you're looking for. But all search engine also have tricks you can use in the main search window to save time.

Because Google has 90% of the UK search market, the tips that follow are for Google:

1. Use multiple words. For example, entering just the word "turkey" will return hits on the country, followed by the bird and how to cook it. Instead, if you type in "turkey Christmas stuffing roast how long" your top hits will be recipes for stuffed turkey.
2. Specify words. Putting a plus sign ("+") in front of a word will ensure you only see pages that include that word. Putting a minus sign ("-") in front of a word will eliminate pages with that word. Searching on "turkey stuffing recipe +sage –chestnut", for example, will get a page of links to recipes for stuffing with sage as an ingredient, but not chestnuts.
3. Use unusual words. Everyone's first instinct is to type in the most common words associated with the topic they're interested in. But to find the most relevant pages, your best strategy is to type in words that are commonly associated with your topic – but that rarely appear together in other contexts.
4. Search within your results. If you get a huge list of results, some of which are relevant, click on ’Search within results’ at the bottom of the page and add search terms to thin out the list you've already found.
5. Use personalised settings. Click on ’Search settings’ at the top right corner of the Google home page and set the language(s) you want to use, the number of hits to appear on a page, and other elements.
6. Read the help files. Every search engine has carefully written pages to help you search more effectively. Google, in particular has many other services and tricks, such as searching within a single site, searching blogs, images, videos and books, translating documents, a shopping engine to help find the best deals on many goods, and much more.