Searching | Evaluation | Ethical Use
Locating Resources on the Web
Tip #3 Use unique terms that will distinguish the document(s) you want from all others.
Search engines work by matching patterns of words you choose (your search terms or keywords) with patterns of words in the documents they have indexed. That means that many different patterns of keywords can be used to retrieve the same document. However, most of those patterns will also retrieve other documents that don't have anything to do with what you are looking for.
To avoid sifting through a sea of irrelevant items focus on keywords that might be unique to the document(s) you really want.
Words that are specific to a discipline's professional vocabulary are particularly powerful and more likely to yield relevant documents. The more unique the terms you choose, the fewer irrelevant documents you are likely to get.
If you are looking for a specific Macintosh computer, rather than searching for "Macintosh" or "Apple", search for "imac" or "powerbook".
Online Learning Module: Using Keywords Effectively