Clarification of Answer by
chis-ga
on
20 Jun 2003 21:34 PDT
Simon,
Sorry, I was out after you sent in the first clarification.
Although I don't believe that I know of any particularly special
searching techniques, there are a few methods that I use when
searching. I will outline these below.
- Don't search for complete text, but rather use key words specific to
your topic that are sure to bring back the results you'd like. For
example, when searching for "Sony High Quality Color Camcorder X75"
(made up camcorder), searching for "sony camcorder X75" (no quotes)
would likely be your best bet as it wouldn't exclude sites that may
not use the less necessary words.
- Use the "-" sign to exclude certain sites. For example, if you're
looking for auctions but don't want to include eBay (which would
likely show up), you may try searching for "auctions -ebay" (no
quotes).
- Search Google Groups when the web searches don't work.
- Download the Google toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com to allow
you to easily search without going to the main Google page.
- Try Google's web sites that help with searches:
://www.google.com/help/basics.html
://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
I'm not sure where you see that I accessed the Lousiana State records.
Please send me a link to this, and I will follow up.
Researchers here will definitely be willing to help you with searches
-- if you'd like me to help, just ask for me in your question.
You may ask new questions or add tips to current questions when they
are rated.
Hopefully this information is useful, but if there is anything else I
can do to help, just ask for another clarification.
Take care,
chis