Search Engines for Seniors

Search engines are powerful tools for finding information online. This guide covers how they work and how to get the results you need.

Search engine basics

Search engines are among the most useful tools on the Internet. If you already browse the web and can use a browser like Google Chrome or Firefox, you know how to get to a search engine. The tricky part is understanding the results you get back.

What is a search engine?

A search engine is like a massive index of web pages. Programs automatically scan the web for new and updated content and add it to this index. You don't need to understand how it works to use it, any more than you need to know how a car engine works to drive.

Using a search engine

To use a search engine, go to the website, type a few keywords in the search box, and press Enter. The engine returns results it thinks match your search, ranked by relevance. Click any result to visit that page.

You can search for almost anything: medication side effects, doctor information, insurance providers, local weather, recipes. If you want to know what a drug does, type the drug name. Need to find a doctor in your network, search your insurance company's website.

Let's try an example. Google (www.google.com) is one of the most popular search engines. To find local weather, enter a phrase like "weather San Francisco California" and press Enter. You should see links to weather websites for that area.

Try searching for your own city and state to see what comes up. You can enter any words into a search engine, and it will try to find matching pages. Some engines also suggest related terms to refine your search.

Search tips

Search engines ignore capital letters, so "SAN FRANCISCO," "San Francisco," and "san francisco" all return the same results.

More specific searches give better results. "San Francisco Giants" is better than just "Giants" because it filters out results about the New York Giants football team or Andre the Giant the wrestler.

If you're searching for an exact phrase, put it in quotes: "Eternal Vigilance is the price of freedom."

If you get no results, remove some words. You can be too specific and confuse the search engine.

Some search engines accept full questions like "What is the best treatment for arthritis?" but most work better with keywords alone.

Google (www.google.com) and Bing (www.bing.com) are the two largest search engines.

If you don't know what to search for, try a subject directory. Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) organizes websites by category, location, topic, and more. Start at the top level and drill down to find what you need.

Another directory is Looksmart (www.looksmart.com). Most search engines offer some kind of category browse option.

Specialized search engines exist for specific needs. THOMAS (thomas.loc.gov) searches U.S. Congress records, bills, and committee meetings. Online yellow pages like Yahoo Yellow Pages (yp.yahoo.com) and SmartPages (www.smartpages.com) help find local businesses. Webster's Dictionary (www.dictionary.com) lets you look up word meanings.

Search results are not always perfect. Check each link to see if it has what you need. If not, go back and try the next result. Sometimes a link takes you to the right website but the wrong page, so you'll need to search within that site.

Be specific with your search terms for better results. Use a subject directory if you're unsure what to search for. Try a specialized search engine if you need information on a particular topic.

Try different search engines and directories for different topics. Search for whatever comes to mind and see where it leads. The best way to learn is by doing.