Help me improve my Google skills and become less annoying

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have a lot of problems finding what I need, even with different keywords and such, I usually get the same useless thread on multiple forums. Any tips or ideas or anything, so I can be less of an annoyance?

 

[GVBN]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=improve+google+skills

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=improve+google+skills

A lot of those are the basics, which I already use Other than that, a lot of unrelated (e.g. "improve spanish skills with google")

 

[Genocidicbunny]

double quotes are your friend. Learn to use more specific keywords. Instead of "Vista crash BSOD" put in Vista STOP [your stop error]. And learn to sift through the results. If the answer your looking for is not on the first page, look on the 2nd, or 3rd. Or try some additional keywords.

 

[Zelig]

A huge number of your questions are for unimportant or irrelavent questions that don't need answering for problems where no action needs to be taken.

Just stop worrying about them.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm the kind of person who opens up electronics to see what's inside. The curious type, I think.

 

[Zelig]

I'm the kind of person who opens up electronics to see what's inside. The curious type, I think.

There's a difference between useful and useless curiosities.

A good rule of thumb for you to go by: If it's on wiki, it might be useful. If it's not on wiki, it's probably useless.

 

[dwaxe]

A lot of those are the basics, which I already use Other than that, a lot of unrelated (e.g. "improve spanish skills with google")

This thread is now the third result on that page, which is not very helpful.

If you've fallen into the habit of using only Google, try using multiple search engines.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, for free software I rarely use google, because I usually get those spammy sites which mix up shareware and freeware, e.g. I was looking for a note organizer for a friend and I got stuff like this.

for software I tend to use a couple of freeware sites, if I can't find then I use google.

 

[Zelig]

for software I tend to use a couple of freeware sites, if I can't find then I use google.

See my previous post:

A good rule of thumb for you to go by: If it's on wiki, it might be useful. If it's not on wiki, it's probably useless.

 

[plarq]

Yes, wiki is your friend.
For free software, check GNU.