We all like to work through the problems we have been presented. However, this is not the fastest way to a solution. When we are in an office, we can pester our co-workers. On the other hand, we can always use search engines to pester the entire Internet instead. Search Engines Require Thoughtful Questions The first thing to know about search engines is how to properly ask a question. Although most of them will handle standard English sentences that approach will not always return the best results. This can cost minutes or even hours of time as you vet the various answers. These engines work off of keywords and phrases, so it helps to use those in phrasing the search terms or question. Likewise, specifics always help. The more specific the subject, the more likely the top results are what you need. For example, "Java Spring Authentication" will not retrieve results as useful as "Tutorial Spring Authentication 4.0 STS Tomcat MySQL." General questions return a broad result set. In this way, search engines are no different from human beings. Refine The Search The good news with these sites is that you can always try again. When a glance through the titles of the original results does not seem to be useful, you can add terms to the search. The initial results can be helpful in improving the search as you go. Look for keywords or topics in the result set that can be used to find more results like those. In this episode, we look at these simple steps and then some ways to improve your skills and make even better use of these tools.
