WEB SEARCHING TECHNIQUES

These techniques may help narrow your results and bring the most relevant pages to the top of your results list.

The "syntax" of your search statement (that is, the way you type your search) may make a considerable difference in the type of results you get. To make your search as precise as possible try the following steps:

Identify the keywords that describe your topic. Please note: In most search engines lower case letters are interpreted as either upper of lower case. If you want to search for proper names or words in all upper case, make sure you type your words that way!

Think of any synonyms (if any!) or alternative words for any of your keywords and list them.

Now combine these synonyms with the boolean OR. Put a parenthesis around them.

To search for an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks" around the phrase (Note: Alta Vista does not use this requirement for phrase searching any more - it does phrase searching first automatically). 

  To specify that certrain words or phrases are included in your search, try placing the "pseudo-boolean" plus (+) sign right before them. Do not leave a space between + and the word!  Feel free to  use the + sign liberally!

To exclude a word from your search, place the "pseudo-boolean" minus (-) sign before the word. Do not leave a space between - and the word!

Do you need to truncate?   Truncation allows you to search for all endings of a word.  Try placing the * symbol at the root of those words that you need to truncate.  Some search engines do not support truncation.

Note: some search engines that offer advanced searching  allow you to use the Boolean operators AND, or NOT instead of the pseudo-boolean symbols of + or -.

Some search engines (notably Alta Vista) allow you to limit a search to a particular area of the webpage or its address.

        You can limit a search to the domain name within a URL (uniform resource locator--other wise known as  the webpage address):

        domain:domainname

        domain:edu to find pages from educational institutions

        domain:org to find pages from non-profit   organizations

        domain:com for commercial business sites;

        domain:gov for government sites.


        You can limit a search to webpage titles:

        title:text

        Finds titles that contain the specified word or phrase in the page title .


Caveat: The search features above are general and may not apply to some search engines.  Do keep in mind that each search engine has its own "special" search features. You may find these search tips usually under a Help link.