Barry Wareham

WMC521 Spring 2002

Searching “Rules of Thumb”

These GENERAL search tips will apply to MOST search engines

Most Search Engines present a basic search box on their home page. Look for the “advanced” search and check out the extra features.

In a basic search most sites treat your “search string” as though the word “OR” was between each search term. It will display any pages that show “any” of your words …

If you Type: Western Maryland College

The Computer sees: Western (OR) Maryland (OR) College

If you want all of your words to be present on a page, use the word “AND” between your search terms.

Type: Western AND Maryland AND College

The Computer will return only those pages that include all three words

Note: they can be in any order and don’t have to be side by side

Each Search site requires its own “grammar” or Syntax. However, many sites use the following symbols to help you refine and narrow your searches.

Use the following symbols to help refine your search

+ requires the word following the + to appear on the page

Type: Maryland +Western +College

The computer will return only pages that included all three words

They will not have to be in any special order on the page

- requires that the word NOT appear on the page

Type: Maryland +Western+College – Athletics

Return: the first three words must appear but in no particular order and the word Athletics can not be on the same page

“ ” requires an exact match of anything between the quotation signs

Type: “Western Maryland College” +Hoover +Catalogue

Return: Western Maryland College in this exact order in addition only pages that include the words Hoover and catalogue will be displayed

* acts as a wild card … allows “any” letter to be present – good for finding different forms of a “stem” word.

Type: sing* (yields singer, sings, singing etc)

Some search engines use words to achieve similar functions … Try these:

Match Any - Sometimes you want pages that contain any of your search terms – but remember many search engines will still list first all those pages which have more of the words in your string

Match All - Practically all major search engines support the + symbol as a means of doing a Match All search … + is cleaner and easier

Exclude - The best way to do this is by using the – command

Resources and Links

Netfour – Check out 4 special search techniques useful for Google!

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm

Help Pages below taken from http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/assistance.html

Many services provide more information on advanced searching techniques and features within their help pages. The links below will take you directly to them:

AltaVista Help
http://help.altavista.com/

AllTheWeb.com Help
http://www.alltheweb.com/help/

AOL Search Help
http://search.aol.com/help/

Direct Hit Help
http://www.directhit.com/help/

Excite Search Help
http://www.excite.com/info/search_help/

Google Help
http://www.google.com/help/

HotBot Help
http://hotbot.lycos.com/help/

LookSmart
LookSmart does not provide help for those searching the directory. This is because LookSmart's site is primarily meant to serve the webmaster audience that wishes to list their site in the results that LookSmart distributes to its partners.

Lycos Search Help
http://help.lycos.com/LycosHelp/help/search/htdocs/search_1_help.htm

GoTo Search Tips
http://www.goto.com/d/about/howto/ht_search.jhtml

iWon Search Tips
http://www.iwon.com/home/search/search_tips/

MSN Help
http://help.msn.com/

Choose the MSN Search link to get search-specific help.

Northern Light Search Help
http://www.northernlight.com/docs/search_help_optimize.html

WebCrawler Help
http://webcrawler.com/Info/

Yahoo: Searching The Web With Yahoo
http://howto.yahoo.com/chapters/7/1.html

This is a long, narrative account of searching with Yahoo. For specific tips and commands, see also Yahoo Search Help.

Return to Barry’s Index