Kid's Search Tips
Searching the World Wide Web sounds easy. Just type in a few words and the best web sites will come up for those words. Unfortunately, search engines are not always that smart. With a little bit of smarts on your side, you can improve the quality of your searches tremendously.
First off, a few rules kids should use when searching the Internet:
1) Always search with the approval of your parents and/or teacher.
2) Only search on subjects that are approved by your parents and/or teachers. Searching the Internet is a privilege.
3) Never, EVER, blog, chat or enter personal data about yourself on a web site.
4) If a web site makes your feel uncomfortable or has pictures or information that you know you shouldn't see, close the web page immediately.
For more information see the FBI Tips on Internet Safety for Kids.
Search Tips for Kids:
1) Search engines are not as smart as you and they sure can't tell what you are thinking. Be sure to use descriptive words and phrases.
Example: Search for Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln instead of just Lincoln
2) Search engines usually look for each word you write. If you are looking for a phrase then you can use quotes. You can also use quotes to get more specific searches when you are getting too many irrelevant pages.
Example: Search for "Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln" instead of Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
3) Search engines often don't use short common words like "a", "it" and "the" in their searches. If you really need the search engine to use those words, then you can use quotes.
Example: Search for "High School Musical 2" rather than High School Musical 2. This way the "2" will be used in the search as well.
Note: with Google you can put a "+" in front of the shorter word.
Example: Star Wars Episode +I
4) When searching, try to use phrases that would be used as written in a web page.
5) Read the titles and descriptions of the web sites carefully before you click on them. Be sure that they make sense and are relevant to what you are searching for.
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