I was in my friend’s office a few weeks ago and I heard one of his employees cursing at their computer screen. At first I thought it was another case of Microsoft frustration, but I soon heard the words "search engines are useless."

I couldn't help but go over and see what the trouble was. I noticed they had the term "Hudson" typed in Google. I asked if they were looking for more information on the Hudson clothing line, only because their billboards are everywhere with just the name Hudson on top of the British flag. They quickly replied, "No, this is NY, obviously I mean the Hudson River!" Before you think that it makes common sense to type in Hudson River instead of just Hudson, let me tell you what just happened at Whole Foods. One of my employees asked the woman working in the supplement department about artichoke extract for lowering cholesterol. The employee went over to her computer and went to Google. Guess what she typed in – artichoke – that was it! My employee immediately asked if she could use the computer and showed her how typing in all of the words would bring a much better result. It would seem that someone who probably uses Google at work all the time to help customers find information about herbs and supplement would know how to do a good Google search. Obviously, that is not the case.

I realize that some people think search engines like Google can read your mind, but they can't; at least not yet. Although semantic search is getting much better, search engines still return the best results based on a good search query. The key to getting the best search results is to be as specific as possible. If you want to know about the Hudson River, then you should type the entire phrase into search engines. I know this may sound quite elementary to many of you reading this, but there are new people learning the Internet each day, and we were all new to the Internet and search engines at one time. There are several search engine tips and shortcuts to help narrow a search. In my next blog, I will list some of the most popular short cuts, even some that most avid search engine users may not know about.