Search sites promise access to billions of Web pages. But if you don't enter your search terms correctly, you might find yourself swamped with too many results — but not the ones you're looking for.

According to Nielsen NetRatings, more than 80 percent of Internet users turn to the top three search sites — Google, Yahoo! and MSN, respectively. However, despite advances in indexing the Web, these sites are not foolproof.

Type the words "miserable failure" into any of these search sites. The top result is George W. Bush's biography. Why the unexpected result? Using knowledge about how search engines rank their results, a few savvy pranksters were able to manipulate them.

So, how can you improve your results? There are three ways. Choose your search terms carefully, learn how to use special search "operators" and use keywords.

When choosing search terms, be specific but not wordy. For example, imagine you want information on artists. If you use "painters," you'll get results on both the artistic kind and those who charge $300 per bedroom. However, "18th century painters" will give you more pertinent results.

Use quotation marks to find complete phrases. "New York" "fashion institute" will return different results than "New York fashion institute."

You can use plus and minus signs to include or exclude words. By entering "+domestic cats" (without quotation marks), the search site will find pages that contain all the terms preceded by "+." If you enter "+rescue cats -feral" (without quotation marks), the search site will return pages about rescue cats with no mention of feral. The word NOT in all capital letters can be substituted for the minus sign, such as "+rescue cats NOT feral."

Use the word OR in all capital letters if you're interested in alternatives. Let's say you want information on camping or swimming in Hawai'i. In the search box, type "Hawaii camping OR swimming."

Google, MSN and Yahoo! say they include the operator AND by default, so it's supposedly unnecessary to use it. However, Google produces different results with the search terms "cat dog" and "cat AND dog." Include the AND operator just to be safe.

To focus results even more, use the search engines' advanced search features. By selecting variables from a drop down box or clicking a check box, you can limit results to sites updated within a specific time frame, sites that contain a certain file type (html, pdf, doc, etc.), sites that use a specific domain suffix (.com, .edu, .gov, etc.), and more.

Use keywords (sometimes called meta words or query words) if the advanced search is inadequate. Keywords are followed by a colon. For example, if you enter "amazing grace contains:mp3," MSN will return a list of Web pages that contain the words "amazing grace" and an .MP3 file. The .MP3 may not always be the song "Amazing Grace," but the chances that it is are much higher when using this type of query.

Contact Kim Komando at www.komando.com/contact.asp.