W5H . Search Engine Tutorial
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Recommended Engine for Advanced Searching is AltaVista

RECOMMENDATION EXAMPLE IMPORTANT
Use nouns and objects as keywords planet or planets Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, predicate subjects and conjunctions are either thrown away by the engines, or are too variable to be useful.
Use 6 to 8 keywords in query new, planet, planets, discovery, solar, system More keywords will narrow your results list.
Truncate words to pick up singular and plural versions planet* or discover* The asterisk wildcard tells the engine to match all the characters after it. This accounts for singular, plural and derivative spellings.
Use synonyms via the OR operator discover* or find Using the "OR" in a search will help you capture all the possible words that may have been considered by the webmaster.
Combine keywords into phrases where possible. "solar system" When appropriate combine your words into phrases. Results will be better matched.
Combine 2 to 3 "concepts" in query with Boolean operators "solar system" and "new planet*" Triangulating on multiple concepts narrows in and targets results.
Limit with dates 1/March/99 to 7/April/99 Limiting by date will narrow the results to the timeframe your interested in.
Case Sensitivity HTCIA or htcia When you use lowercase text, the search service finds both upper and lowercase results. When you use upper case text, the search service finds only upper case.
AltaVista's Advanced Help Page.