Secrets of successful searches By Erfert Fenton The Internet is growing by the day, with millions of Web pages that cover just about every topic imaginable. With so much information available, you might feel like it's impossible to find what you're looking for. Luckily, MSN Search is there to help. And to get even better search results, try using the tips below.

If you're new to Search or just want a refresher course, check out our Search Help section.
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Knowing how to ask for what you want
If you've ever tried to search for information on a broad topic like "pet care" or "cookie recipes," you've probably wound up with more search results than you could possibly use. And who has time to wade through 170,000 results to find tips on bathing beagles or baking gingersnaps?

When searching, it's best to describe the topic you're looking for in several specific words, rather than in one or two general words. Searching for "tips on grooming Golden Retrievers" or "recipes for lowfat Snickerdoodles" will return more useful results than searching for "pet care" or "cookie recipes." You can use up to 150 characters in the Search box to describe what you're looking for.

Of course, it's possible that instead of too many, you'll get too few results when you search for something. If that's the case, try using slightly more general search words and phrases. It's usually easier (and more useful) to start searching with specific words and get more general rather than vice versa.

If the results you get don't quite hit the mark, try searching using synonyms, or words that mean almost the same thing as what you're searching for. For example, if you're heading to Nashville on vacation and want to find recommendations for places to eat, try searching for "cafes in Nashville" and "bistros in Nashville" instead of just "restaurants in Nashville."

You might also want to try alternate spacing or punctuation. For example, if you want to hire a narrator, you could try looking for "voiceover talent," voice over talent," and "voice-over talent." You'll get different results for each search.
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Narrowing down your results
Still getting search results that are too general or too numerous? Try these tricks to narrow them down:

If you're searching for a term or phrase made up of two or more words, put the phrase in quotes to make sure you get results for that combination of words, rather than each separate word. For example, if you search for the artist "Stanley Mouse" (with no quotes), you'll get a lot of sites related to Stanley Mouse (about 378,000 of them), but you'll also get some sites that contain the word "Stanley" and the word "mouse" — perhaps Stanley Cup mouse pads or a children's story about a mouse named Stanley. Putting "Stanley Mouse" in quotes finds sites that feature those words combined, in that order, and gives you more accurate results (about 8,700 sites).

Use the + and — signs to specify what sort of results you do and don't want when you're using a general search word. For example, if you're searching for sweaters and you know you do want to find information on v-neck sweaters but don't want info on crewnecks, your search would look something like this: "sweaters +v-neck —crewneck" (yes, you do need spaces between each group of items). Type the general search word first, and then use the + sign before each specific word you do want to see results for, and the - sign before each word you don't want to see results for.

The next time you use Search, give these tips a try. They may help make searching for what you want quicker, easier, and more useful. Good luck!
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