Limit your results by using uppercase letters if you are, for example, searching for a personal name or need information on NeXT or Java. An AltaVista search for NeXT returns 40,647 hits while one on next returns 12,290,723 hits, including every instance found by the NeXT search. Wildcards Learn to use wildcards, a feature available with most search engines. Be careful using wildcards, though. Don't truncate too much.
Most search engines allow phrase searching.
Entering a search for ship models will process each word as a search term and will return Web sites on ship models as well as sites about ships and sites featuring supermodels. A friend complained that babe sites kept popping up whenever he searched for information about his model ship hobby. He solved his problem by enclosing his search terms in quotation marks. Check each search engine's help pages for specifics. Proper use of AND can screen out irrelevant sites.