Advice for internet searches

I have purposely limited this blog to public news and support sites. Obviously, the internet is much wider than this, and there is more information out there on the troops and area of operations. As remarkable as search engines are, it can still be very difficult to narrow down topics. Here is some advice for doing your own searches:

1) Try several search engines. They all use different cataloging techniques and are updated at different times. google.com, msn.com, and yahoo.com are the three most popular.

2) Try several variations on the name. For example, 44th Engineer, 44th ENG, 44th EN, etc.

3) Use advanced search techniques in the search engine window:

* for exact matches, put phrases in quotes:

e.g., "1st battalion, 9th infantry"
(this will focus the search much more than without the quotes)

e.g., "2nd battalion" "5th marine" might be better than "2nd battalion, 5th marine"

* to exclude unwanted matches, use a dash before phrases to exclude.

e.g, 506th iraq -Expeditionary
(this search will not list results that include "Expeditionary", effectively removing all links to the "506th Air Expeditionary Unit", which is a separate unit)

* use the logical OR operator and parentheses ("OR" must be capitalized)

e.g., (503rd OR 503d) Ramadi
(this search will find more matches)

4) Use advanced search interfaces:
* click on the "advanced search options" in your favorite search engine to limit searches, show more than the default 10 results per page, etc.

* alternatively, use a third-party tool like faganfinder's "ultimate google search".

5) Also search on other relevant phrases: the base name in quotes (e.g., "Camp Manhattan"), city/area of operations, unit number, unit nickname, etc.

6) be patient. If it's not on the first page of results, it might be on the 2nd, or 20th.