How To Be a Safe and Smart Searcher

Here are some tips that will help you become a safe and smart searcher on the Internet.

Several keywords will help you find better results. Use more than one keyword when you are doing research. If you want to find out about seagulls, for example, search for “bird seagull” and not just “seagull” – because seagull might also be the name of just about anything else, from a hotel to a documentary film.

Exact references can help you find what you’re looking for. If you are looking for an exact phrase or sentence, e.g. “seagulls are very clever”, type it between quotation marks (“ ”) and only exact matches will be shown. This is useful when you want to find something you have already seen but lost.

Avoid common words like ‘a’ or ‘the’ in a search. These aren’t always helpful and are usually unnecessary.
Remove unwanted results by adding a minus symbol (-). For example, “seagull – hotel – film” would leave out all

references to hotels and films.

Check your spelling. Make sure that you spell every word in the search box correctly. The smallest typing mistakes can bring unwanted results – especially when the mistyped word exists.

Have a filter. It’s a good idea to filter your online searches, especially when you are searching for pictures. Ask an adult to help you add a filtering system. There are lots of filtering software options available.

Experiment with different search engines until you find the one that’s best for you. Some search engines personalise the results, so check out the option of using a search engine that doesn’t do this and you will get different results.

Reliability is very important when you are searching on the Internet. Always ask yourself, ‘Is this reliable?’ Don’t make the mistake of believing everything you see. Some websites are unreliable and some information is false. Check your information on other websites before accepting it.