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> Kevin McLauchlan: <<Does anybody on the list ROUTINELY search with
> Google, Yahoo or any of the other major engines and then
> actually look
> past the second page of results?>>
>
> Depends entirely on whether I find what I'm looking for (from a
> credible source) on the first page. I _frequently_ add a minus sign
> before a keyword found in useless hits on the first page to
> repeat the
> search with that keyword excluded (i.e., with more precision), which
> in my books counts for looking beyond the first page. I work as a
> substantive editor in the sciences, so I spend an enormous amount of
> time mining Google.
>
> <<Does anybody on the list RARELY(*)-but-sometimes search
> with Google,
> Yahoo or any of the other major engines and then actually look past
> the second page of results?>>
>
> Again, it depends entirely on the obscurity of the details
> I'm seeking
> and how skillful I've been at choosing search keywords. Some
> days, it
> takes several tries and a great many clicks on "next search results"
> before I find what I'm seeking.
I should have been more clear.
I don't consider re-submitting a search with modifications to be going
past the second page of the original search.
You seem to be saying what I was already suggesting, that if the first
attempt doesn't give much, or if the first attempt DOES give some
interesting results, the logical next step - if one is needed - is to
refine the search, and NOT to go paging to the tenth or fiftieth page of
returns from your current search. In other words, anything past the
second page of Google or Yahoo hits rarely gets seen, except by novices.
The 28,800,219 hits on a term is just a count that Google tells you, but
nobody will ever see more than the first tiny fraction.
- Kevin
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