WEB TRACKING

 

 

 

"I'm the best there is at what I do, and there is next to nothing on this planet I can't track down. So to help you find what you may be looking for here are some tips for effective online searches. Practice these methods and you may be as good a tracker as me one day, but I doubt it."

 

TIPS FOR ONLINE SEARCHES

 

 

1. Choose your search terms carefully. The most precise words will yield the best results.

 

2. Adding more words can narrow a search. As you get farther into your research, you may want to narrow your results. There's a big difference between "Apple" and "Red Delicious Apples History United States."

 

3. Use synonyms! If kids can't find what they're looking for, have them try keywords that mean the same thing or are related.

 

4. Point out sponsored links. They often appear at the top of a search result list to encourage users to click on them first, and they're usually labeled as sponsored. Remember that sponsored equals advertising.

 

5. Be aware of your browser's safe-search settings. Typing even innocent keywords into a search engine may yield search results you don't want your younger kids to see.

 

 

Great Google Searching Shortcuts:

 

 

• Use quotation marks. Using quotes around a set of words will direct Google to search for those exact words, in that exact order. Great for searching song lyrics!

 

• Write "site." Typing site: (with the colon) after your keyword and before a URL will tell Google to search within a specific website. For example, "movie reviews site:commonsensemedia.org" will give you search results only within Common Sense Media's website.

 

• Add a minus sign. Adding a minus sign immediately before any word (no space in between!) indicates that you don't want those words to appear in your search results. For example, "Saturn -cars" will give you information about the planet, not the automobile.