Search the pages of FrugalFun.com and its sister sites, or search the entire Web with Google.com. Learn how to search more efficiently—and get better results—from any search engine, anywhere.
Before you search—here, or anywhere on the Net—please read this: it will help a lot!
Approach a search strategically—you'll get much better results. The more specific your search, the better matches you'll get. Here's how to avoid frustrating irrelevant hits:
Narrow Your Criteria
Let's say you're looking for an article on press releases. Let the search engine look for press AND release, or the joined phrase "press release"; that way you won't get any hits about pressing wine.
Check Synonyms
For that same search on press releases, try "news release" OR "press release"
Check Variations
Try both the single and plural, present and past tenses (try the singular first, as it will probably find the plurals also).
Check Spelling
If you type "pess" instead of "press," this page will be your only hit on my site!
My thanks to Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering for his clear and cogent thinking on this matter.
Happy Searching!
—Shel Horowitz, Frugal Fun Webmaster
Reprint Information
We encourage you to post these tips on your own on-site search engines, or to print in electronic or print newsletters and magazines, as long as we are given credit. Permission is hereby granted to print or post this page in its entirety, provided the following blurb is included:
Copyright 1999 by Shel Horowitz, marketing/frugality consultant and author of Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Marketing Without Megabucks: How to Sell Anything on a Shoestring, The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant's Pocketbook, and other books. Visit Shel's 350+ page Website, https://www.frugalfun.com, for free advice and monthly tipsheets on frugal marketing and frugal fun, as well as Global Arts Review, Global Travel review, and Down to Business magazines.