Written By Lucy Pastier – Director of Prospect Management & Research with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Treasurer of Apra Pennsylvania

Being able to effectively search the web is an essential skill for individuals in Prospect Development. Investigating a prospect often starts and ends with what information we can find about them online. However, search engine functionality, results display, and search results have all changed massively in the 30+ years since I first started using search engines.¹ Periodically revisiting our use of web search engines and reassessing search techniques are things any professional researcher should strive for. Here are some tips on how you can search smarter – and not just within Google’s ecosystem.

Banish AI Summaries

In 2024, Google rolled out AI summaries at the top of most google results. The results have not been stellar. As someone who uses Google’s search engine dozens of times a day for work and personal use, I was desperate for a way to opt out of summaries at the top of the search results. After a few months, I learned about the magic of “udm=14”. Adding that string of text brings you to Google’s “web filter,” showing you results only from websites – no AI generated summaries, no map results, no shopping links. There are a few ways you can use this method without adding the string into your search.  You can bookmark https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 to use as your default search page or use one of the many extensions and plug-in for your preferred browser.

Advanced Search Operators

When Ask Jeeves first launched, their hook was being able to ask a question in natural language to Jeeves, your faithful digital butler, who would do his best to bring you websites that answered your query. At a time when optimum Google search results required Boolean logic and carefully selected terms, this was petty revolutionary.  Now, Jeeves has long since retired and most search engines have embraced the natural language searches.  While this approach is more user friendly, it often leads to broad results that may not answer your question. Search operators are still an incredibly powerful tool for getting more targeted results – and they’re often underutilized!

If you’ve ever used the “Advanced Search” option in Google, you probably know the basics of search operations (such as quotation marks to get the exact phrase you’re looking for, plus or minus symbols to include or omit words from your search results) but do you know how to limit your search results to a specific website, in order to see mentions of your donor only on their alma mater’s website?  Or how to limit your results to PDFs only, which can be extremely helpful in finding event programs and annual reports? Or how to limit your searches to instances before or after a specific date? Dan Russel, a research scientist and the former Principal UX Researcher at Google, has put together the ultimate guide for Advanced Search Operators at bit.ly/AllTheOperators.²

Search Tweaks

If you want a masterclass in internet searching, you need to follow Tara Calishain’s work. Tara is an app builder, has been writing about internet search engines for almost 30 years, and is a North Carolinian to boot.  Her site Search Tweaks offers a wide array of tools that can assist you with news searches, time-bound searches, and even searching for a name with multiple variations across a variety of sources. See her local news search in action here.

The Internet Archive and Wayback Machine

Using archived versions of websites can be a real treasure trove of information on otherwise hard to research prospects. How many times have you tried to research someone, only to find the board service listed in their corporate bio does not correspond with the nonprofit’s current board listing? Or tried to research someone who held a leadership position at a company but retired a few years ago? Or found what appeared to be a great biography of a prospect in the search preview, only to find the page has been 404’d? I’ve used the Wayback Machine to check older versions of sites of interest – board of trustee listings, leadership listings on corporate websites, etc. – to find information that has been removed from websites more times than I can count. It often gives me access to information that is otherwise unavailable and has given me a better idea of timelines for board transitions.

Beyond the Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive also has an impressive array of genealogy reference tools; tens of thousands of yearbooks from US High schools, colleges and universities; and over 4 million items in library collections, which give you access to a mind-boggling amount of newspapers. Even just using their search function to research a person allows you to search for mentions on them in TV news captions, radio transcripts, and text across their vast collections.³

Try Other Search Engines

Which brings me to my point: Google is not the only game in town. It’s worth checking other search engines, not only to get out of your own Google algorithm bubble, but to protect your browsing data and online privacy as well. If you’re stuck on where to start, PC magazine had a good review of 15 search engines which compared results, privacy options, and security of the services. However, echoing my warning from before, please stay away from the AI-driven options.⁴

1-Let’s have a moment of silence for AOL keywords.

2-He also runs a fascinating blog about searches and published the book “Joy of Search: A Google Insider’s Guide to Going Beyond the Basics.” 

3-PS, the Internet Archive is doing important work which is being threatened by legal battles. Consider supporting them to help maintain this resource!

4-Hat tip to Andy McMahon, who is always thinking about AI and large language models in a very thoughtful way.