Search Engine Tips

It isn't always possible to answer your own questions about chess or anything else by using a search engine (SE), but I'm still fascinated by the apparently large number of people here and elsewhere who don't appear to have a clue about using them and expect total strangers to look everything up for them and/or explain everything to them that they could have found for themselves very easily and quickly.

For instance I just noticed a question in one of the forums here about installing Stockfish for MAC. I just typed "Stockfish MAC" into a search engine and immediately found a download site with support and available.OK not all questions are so easily answered and I occasionally seek help myself too when I can't find something by using a search engine, but I at least mention having tried to find the answer myself with no luck when I ask for help.

Oh well this is probably a big waste of everyone's time because I've noticed some people just take it for granted that total strangers are supposed to do everything for them they're too lazy or don't know how to do themselves, and they get really pissed at the suggestion they at least try to DYI - Do It Yourself. BUT in case you aren't one of these people check out these links. And yes I do know that many questions are seeking opinions not facts but even in some of those cases a search engine is useful to supplement the answers you get here (for instance opinions, reviews and ratings of chess books, clocks, software etc)

The addresses below are links to sites about how to use SEs:

http://www.cln.org/searching_faqs.html  This is a good site to start learning about search engines and how to use them

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqsearch.html 

http://searchenginewatch.com/page/tips 

http://www.monash.com/spidap.html

Metasearch Engine ratings:

http://www.listofsearchengines.info/meta-search-engines

http://www.technoindian.com/2011/01/5-best-meta-search-engines.html

Here are several SEs worth checking out as alternatives to the biggest "Brand Name" SEs such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com. If you're concerned about privacy issues, such as the fact you have none whatsoever when you use Google, an asterisk indicates SEs that respect your privacy. 

http://help.blekko.com/  *

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/support/Faqs

https://duckduckgo.com/about  *

http://www.gigablast.com/ 

https://www.ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html   *

http://www.info.com/media_comments