Natural Freedom

Learn to Search
It sounds so simple, you type a few words into a box and hit the button and get a list of results, nowadays you may even get an AI generated summary at the top.

You find yourself asking, what does he mean what is there to learn.

As this world wide web and internet spreads its wings across the world, there are more and more islands of data existing within the landscape. Areas which can only be partially viewed from outside.

The result is that there are more search engines and search portals than ever, with different interfaces and focuses. They also have their own quirks, features, benefits and losses.

You find yourself consuming something, a post, article, book, video, audio..
and you want more, maybe generally on that subject or a particular thing that grabbed your attention..
You have cherry picked what you have just experienced and come away with a list of terms, concepts, phrases, names, something on which to start with.

The next question is what you are looking for, it could be general scan of the landscape, or it could be a book, research paper, video, audio etc This should influence where you search for the results.. A situational search.

Start of with a broad search, then become more focused as you hone in on the results you want.
Also as much as you have a list of terms that you want to include in the search, remember to keep a list of terms to exclude so as to narrow the field of the search. This also applies to sources to keep away from that contain too much noise in the results.

Some search engines allow to to search on date ranges, within specific sites, see which sites link to others and various other parameters.
the use of special characters is widespread and also tags within your search... for example : +,-,*,site:,link:,datestart:,dateend:,(,),AND,OR,NOT

use your favourite search engine to learn about its not so open features, search for tips and tricks on that engine, articles on how to really use it. I found that a number of universities have multipage free courses (no login or reg) on searching, for their students, you might as well read a few

Use the search engine to find out about other search engines, like specific ones for research papers, medical papers, legal papers, books, patents, university libraries, online archives, offline archives, internet archives, wayback machines, usenet archives, web archives, etc

I would recommend you, when reading on here and you find something you want to know more on, use the search page.. it allows you to limit your search in a number of ways, by author, forum, keywords also where to search topic, message, first lines, all
it also allows you to view the results in a number of ways, personally i prefer the 'topics' view, as it gets me a lot more relevant results rather than clutter.
read the note next to keyword search on usage of + and -

There is also now a question to ask yourself, for each search, am i after an AI summary that I can then cherry pick for terms to run another search off or even as a final result.... or am i aiming at webpages and sites
so we either aim at the AI with a more natural language query
or we aim at the classical engine with an appropriate query

Searching can be a highly iterative process if seeking something uncommon or in an obscure area so search, analyze results, refine search, rerun... as per the scientific method : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

there are so many options available nowadays, it is worthwhile to make yourself familiar with them as if you are reading here I have a feeling you will want to go searching.

Spend a moment looking at the google (or another) advanced search page, that so many do not visit, instead using a simple text box, how many options do they miss to customise the results.

The search engine is there to give you the results you want, like any tool it takes practice to learn how to use it in a way that fits you. Once you then take a step back you can take these lessons and use them across many different ones, thus uncovering more sources.

Happy Searching

PS. This post was inspired by a recent question on what was available , i found myself thinking search so much, well here it is. I think this is more relevant than ever with the adoption of some concepts discussed here within more mainstream areas nowadays.

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In building a statue, a sculptor doesn't keep adding clay to his subject.He keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions. Perfection is not when there is no more to add,but no more to take away.

Remarkable!,
I suspect nowadays this is required, in other words: a MUST.

Thanks Grinus.

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GMST

Very nice post.
Agree. A useful skill to learn.


Search engine is here to stay even with the rise of AI.
Just like the postal system is still here even with emails.

Two different usecases, and some things on "classic search" (or advanced search) won't be available in AI for sure.

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People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people

Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels,will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade.

What they hate in you, is missing in them.