Like most search engines, Google has a set of tools for more effecient searching. Here are a few:
+ : used in a search to add items together, a search for "horses + ranch" would return results where both words are present
- : used to eliminate a word, a search for "horses - ranches" would return results where "ranch" was not present
Don't forget about Search Tools
You've probably heard of the invisible web, or the deep web, which could be refered to everything that exists on the web but isn't reachable by search engines. Therefore, it's important to recognize that there is an important and rather large section of the web that simply can't be searched by search engines. Who makes up this invisible web content?
And what might be most relevant to your purposes . . .
Databases contain a huge amount of relavent material that is especially important to research. That's why it's important to look further than what Google serves you.
Only about 16% of the web is indexed, meaning the invisible web makes up 84% of it.
Lyman, P. and Varian, H. R. (2003). How much information? 2003. School of Information Management and Systems, University of California at Berkeley.
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