Using A Search Engine

Right! So you are a noob that has just happened to perchance upon this one thread amongst hundreds upon thousands upon millions of websites on the internet. Completely ignoring the fact that the chances of that are extremely small, this is the great 5 step guide to search for stuff you want to know with as little pain as possible.

Step 1:

The Knowledge You Seek

Step 2:

Choosing the Search Engine

Step 3:

The Magic Words

Step 4:

The Integrating Process

Step 5:

The Knowledge

And with that, you have just completed your search. Supposedly by now you would have gained the knowledge you wish to gain, but if you didn't, then that probably means that you either chose the wrong words, or there really might not be any information on it (example: You are searching for a translation patch and have found no patches...OBVIOUSLY that means that there is NO TRANSLATION PATCH...blithering idiots...).

As my final words for this guide, "use the fucking search bar".

-edit-
I probably should have posted a "reserved" post...I apparently got ninja'd in terms of posting...though I'm guessing I started first...but meh w/e what's done is done.

jurassicplayer	Post #1 Posted 02 May 2011 - 06:11 PM
Resident OtakuBot Group: Members Posts: 3,700 Member No.: 160,938 Joined: 07-March 09 Location: GBATemp.net	Right! So you are a noob that has just happened to perchance upon this one thread amongst hundreds upon thousands upon millions of websites on the internet. Completely ignoring the fact that the chances of that are extremely small, this is the great 5 step guide to search for stuff you want to know with as little pain as possible. Step 1: The Knowledge You Seek The first step to gaining knowledge about something is to obviously have a topic to gain knowledge about. In other words, to search for something, you need to know what you want to search for. This can be absolutely anything whether it be real, unreal, mythical, etc. though imaginary words tend to not provide good results. Once you know what you want, you have completed the first step. Step 2: Choosing the Search Engine So some search engines provide more specific results than others, such as the GBATemp's search bar provides results from GBATemp, whereas Google provides results from practically anything it can get it's grimy hands on. Sometimes these specific search engines are more helpful than google in terms of what you are looking for, though it depends on the topic. For almost all cases, Google or another widely known search engine will get the information you need, but don't expect it to be able to give you a list of all of your GBATemp posts in a cleanly manner (in this case, you would use the GBATemp search bar). Once you've decided on a search engine, it is finally time to choose some words to search. Step 3: The Magic Words So first of all, you shouldn't try to type out full on sentences right out of a book unless you are specifically looking for that sentence (as in the case of some homework questions) and you should try to come up with a couple key terms that relate to the topic you are searching for. As an example, if I wanted to know more about Snailface's AR card homebrew, but just couldn't remember anything apart from the fact that it was homebrew and that it existed, I would use the key terms of "AR Card" and "Homebrew" while possibly even throwing in a couple more related terms like "3DS" or "augmented reality". Finding the right words to define what you are looking for isn't a set-in-stone sort of thing and so you can toss a couple words around that pops into your head, leave some out, and rearrange them, among anything else you can think of. With that said, it's good to keep a small little list of related words in your head about the topic so that you have those words to fiddle with and tweak your search. Step 4: The Integrating Process This is probably the most boring part of any search, actually looking through the search results and determining which ones are relevant and which ones are irrelevant. Luckily enough, most search engines provide a little excerpt around where the searched terms are so you can get a small look of what it's talking about with some context. The only way to get through this is to search these excerpts and see if they match what you are hoping to find and if you don't, just move on to the next search result. Keep in mind that if you are going on to the fourth or fifth page of search results and STILL haven't found anything, then you should consider tweaking your words and begin your search again. It's best to have a tabbed browser at this time so that as you are glancing through the excerpts, you can open the supposed relevant ones in a separate tab and continue working your way down the search results while the pages load. Step 5: The Knowledge Last but not least, the final step in our quest for knowledge and the initial reason why you set off on your searching journey in the first place, the knowledge about the topic you are looking for. This step is all about just reading the webpages that you opened up previously and just glancing for the words that you searched for and getting a bigger context than what the search engine provided. Supposing that it is still related to what you wish to know, then you can continue on to read the entire page to extract the relevant information, but if it isn't then you might want to consider continuing on to the next search result and look for it there. And with that, you have just completed your search. Supposedly by now you would have gained the knowledge you wish to gain, but if you didn't, then that probably means that you either chose the wrong words, or there really might not be any information on it (example: You are searching for a translation patch and have found no patches...OBVIOUSLY that means that there is NO TRANSLATION PATCH...blithering idiots...). As my final words for this guide, "use the fucking search bar". -edit- I probably should have posted a "reserved" post...I apparently got ninja'd in terms of posting...though I'm guessing I started first...but meh w/e what's done is done. Edited by jurassicplayer, 28 July 2011 - 07:44 AM.
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Using A Search Engine

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