How to search properly

In order to answer a question or find a program etc. you would use Google, Yahoo, Bing or the search here right? Well if you don't use search correctly you will often not be able to find what you are looking for. Follow these steps to maximize your chances of finding what you want.

1. If you are using Google get Personal Blocklist. It lets you block spam sites and the more of them you block the more Google will look into and remove from search which they are currently trying to fix. Help us all out by blocking them ;)
2. Spell your terms properly eg. If you are looking for "how to hack car keys" don't go to Google and type "how do youz hax carr keyyz???"
3. Remove all unnecessary words eg. you are looking for: how would a chicken go about crossing a road with it being so dangerous? you should type in: chicken cross road danger as they are the only word you will need the more words you have the less chance there is of getting results.
4. Use the "-" function if there are a lot of results related to a totally different subject eg. if you are looking for katana and you type in katana as your search term and all that comes up are sites about katana swords you should also add to the end of your search terms "-sword" so you would be searching for "katana -sword"
5. Use the site: function. This will only search the site you specify. eg. if your looking for hacking tutorial and want to search HF only type in "thing i want to hack site:hackforums.net" (without "s obviously)
6. Be more specific. This contradicts step 3 a bit but sometimes there may be something very similar to what you are looking for but not exactly it. eg. "how to hack websites" when you want to use RFI (remote file inclusion) will not do so well because most of it will be SQL injection so you add RFI to your search.
7. Try searching sites that are more relevant to what you are looking for if there are too many results. eg. If you want to grow apples but all are coming up is cookery sites using them as an ingredient you should look up a gardening site and search it with the "site:" function.

Source:  www.hackforums.net