Barbara Locke, Search Analyst.

The other day, I was rushing out the door when I remembered a story about a dolphin that received a prosthetic fluke. I typed Bionic Dolphin in the Searchme search box and there it was, on the fourth result. I didn’t have to click on numerous links, open a single page or read the article to find my dolphin. The picture of the dolphin was right there on the news page. Since I was running late, I “stacked” the page in the To Read stack and left.

When I got to the office, I searched the other engines and couldn’t find my bionic dolphin as easily or as fast. To get what I wanted, I had to type longer phrases such as dolphin receives prosthetic tail and its variations, open several links and read a few paragraphs.

It’s fun to experiment while searching. As experienced Web navigators, we learn a few tricks on how to find what we are looking for quickly and also how to avoid all the spam and other useless links. At work, I like to put myself on the keyboard of a novice Web user. It’s like detective work – What’s the reasoning behind each search? What would a 10 year old type? How to use the search box in an economic way, saving keystrokes and time? Our visual search allows me to do all that without wasting time.

What is your creative way of searching the Web?