Barbara Roche, SL Library

A few tips for better Google results:

• to search for a phrase, put "quotation marks" around the phrase 
• to limit a search to a .org or .gov, type your search then site:.org
• to limit a search within a particular website, type your search then site:.url, such as:  polar bears site:.stlzoo.org
• to make one word more important, type it first.  (Remember, there is a difference between show dogs and dogs show!)

Some other search engines that you might want to use:

www.duckduckgo.com: DuckDuckGo's motto is "Privacy, simplified."  If you don't like Google (or others) tracking (and storing!) your data and bothering you with targeted advertising, try DuckDuckGo!  It will not store your personal information and it won't send you targeted ads.  If you' like it to be your default search engine, you can use this Google Chrome extension. 

www.ecosia.com:  Ecosia uses the money from advertising to plant trees!  You can see how many trees in total have been planted; but, you can also track how many trees have been planted from your searching.  Ecosia does value privacy.  Searches are encrypted and are not stored permanently or externally tracked.  You can also turn off all Ecosia tracking (tree count will be lost) if you so desire.  It, too, has a chrome extension: Google Chrome extension. 

www.dogpile.com:  Dogpile incorporates the search functionality of multiple search engines (including Google and Yahoo!), eliminates duplication, and returns the results in relevance ranking.  Dogpile does track, store, and harvest searching data, so be aware!