That way, you can start by tailoring the choice of a search engine to the information you seek. You'll get a lot of hits that way, but the downside is there will be more information to sift through. Now let's talk about ways to sharpen your search. As you probably know, these engines seek out pages that contain the search words you use. That's why it's important to select words precisely.
Most searches are literal.
We'll use AltaVista as an example of a way to narrow a search. Let's say you're looking for information on wartime Germany. But, based on the way AltaVista works, you would find pages that contained any one of those words. With AltaVista, you instruct the search engine to find pages with a combination of words. By putting a plus sign in front of words, you let AltaVista know the word must appear.