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The World Wide Web
(the "Web" for short) has been described as the world's largest library.
Unfortunately, if this analogy were accurate, the library would have to be
further described as consisting of rows upon rows of books that have been
shelved at random while thousands of new books are delivered daily and
tossed in a pile at the front door. In other words, while you should be
able to find almost any information on any topic on the web (there are
over 100 million web-pages available!) it is often difficult in tracking
down just what you need.
What can you search for? Nearly everything! The most efficient and productive approach is to use
strategies that best suit you and the subject matter. The simpler you can
keep it, the better the results. As a guide, the following suggestions
start with the most simplistic and efficient plan and progresses to more
complex techniques. Start using the easiest approach on the right site.
Search methods
Specific procedures vary from one search engine to another.
Certain general concepts apply across all or most search engine systems.
Use " " to include a phrase
Use + to include a word
Use - to exclude word
Examples, search for :
| |
|
Approx. No of
Results |
| Tiger Woods |
Search for Tiger, an animal, a person
or Woods, forests, timber) .. will return a large number of results |
15,500,000 |
| Tiger |
Single word search |
25,000,000 |
| Tiger +Woods |
Search for Tiger and Woods together |
4,210,000 |
| "Tiger Woods" |
Phrase search |
3,480,000 |
Searching in plain English
Write your question in plain simple English, including at least one key
word, in the "search for" box provided. This method, typically produces a
very large number of hits. Look at or near the top of the displayed
results list. Try changing the word order, putting key word(s) first.
Examples, search for :
What companies offer "parental control software"?
"parental control software" companies
AND searches
Two or more keywords can be searched for, both of which must appear in
the results.
Examples, search for :
Monet AND Renoir:
Search for +Monet +Renoir
Monet Renoir - (select All the Words option)
artist -Renoir - (select the word artist, exclude the word Renoir)
OR searches
Used when there is more than one way of referring to the person, object
or thing you are looking for. Two or more keywords can be searched for,
all of which must appear in the results. Most search engines do an OR
search by default.
Examples, search for :
shrub bush
ship boat - (select Any of the Words option)
"United Kingdom" Britain
"United Kingdom" OR Britain
NOT searches
Use a NOT search when you want to exclude words sometimes associated
with the key search word. care is needed as using NOT can exclude wanted
search results.
Examples, search for :
python NOT Monty
python - Monty
python AND NOT Monty
NEAR (proximity) searches
Search for words that appear in the same document in close proximity to
each other.
Examples, search for :
Labor NEAR "foreign policy" - (default distance apart)
Labor NEAR/15 "foreign policy" - (within 15 words apart)
Using wildcards
Use an asterisk to indicate variations on a particular word.
Use at least 3 letters with a * or *a
Examples, search for :
medic* - (search for medicine, medical. medication etc)
Stopwords
Most search engines ignore in their search words such as and,
not, or, is to, be, because either they occur
very frequently or they are reserved for some special purpose.
Should you need to use a stopword in a search criterion then enclose it in
quotes.
Examples, search for :
"The Man who Came to Dinner"
"to be or not to be" |