How to Use a Search Engine

I’m going to let everyone in on the not, nearly, very, secret, at all Tech Support Tool called: Google.

The site: xkcd has already documented how to become the local Tech Support expert so I’m going to focus in on a key step in the process that not many people (at least web hosting clients) seem to grasp: How to put a query into Google (or any other search engine) when trying to find information on a question.

Steps to looking something up in Google. (I’ve tried to break these down like instructions on a box of Pop-Tarts) You may want to open a new tab or browser window so you can follow along:

Please note: These instructions are pretty uniform across multiple search engines (the search button might be labeled differently!)

1. Type www.google.com into your web browser
2. Hit enter
3. Wait for the page to load
4. Find the search box (it’s in the middle of the screen)
5. Type in what you’re searching for (you can even type in questions!)
6. Hit enter or click Google Search
7. Wait for the next page to load
8. Look at the returned entries until you find something that looks promising
9. Click on the link to the promising information
10. Wait for the page to load

Please note: Using the back button will be covered in a future installment, I apologize for any inconvenience.

If you need something visual I’ve used the site: Let Me Google That for You to create a demonstration.

To view the demonstration please go to: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=alltech-nologic.com.

Hopefully this will clear up any basic questions about using a search engine.