Searching the Internet
The guidelines below reference how to use search commands for several search engines. Once you are familiar with one or two search engines that you like to use, you will be able to narrow your search strategies to find the information that you need. Be sure to review each search engine's "Help" files.
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How Search Engines Work
The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both true search engines and directories. They are not the same. The difference is how listings are compiled.
| Search Engines | Directories |
| Search engines create their listings automatically. Search engines crawl the web, then people search through what they have found. | A directory depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. |
Boolean Commands
Boolean commands, developed by Mathematician George Boole in the mid-18th century, express the relationship of two or more concepts. The most commonly used operators - AND, OR and NOT can be used to link search terms or narrow search results.
OR = Match Any Search
The Boolean OR command is used in order to allow any of the specified search terms to be present on the web pages listed in results. It can also be described as a Match Any search. Sometimes you want pages that contain any of your search terms. For example, you may want to find pages that contain either of the words rules or laws.
You use the command like this,
rules OR laws
Using OR to link your terms will broaden your search and increase the number of results. Note that OR works only in upper case between search terms in Ask.com, Google, Live Search, and Yahoo!
AND = Match All Search
The Boolean AND command is used in order to require that all search terms be present on the web pages listed in results. It can also be described as a Match All search. For example, you may want to find pages referencing both rules and laws.
You use the command like this,
rules AND laws
Since AND is the default operator in search engines, it is unnecessary to type it. For example, you can type rules laws and your results will retrieve pages that include both rules and laws on the same page.
NOT = Exclude Search
The Boolean NOT command is used in order to require that a particular search term NOT be present on web pages listed in results. It can also be described as an Exclude search.
You use the command like this,
plants NOT trees
Using NOT will work in Live Search and Yahoo! However, when using Ask.com and Google, you must use the "-" sign without spaces.
You use the command like this,
plants-trees
w/x = Proximity Search
Proximity searches are used in order to specify how close terms should appear to each other. They are not supported in major search engines such as Ask.com, Live Search, Google, or Yahoo! But can be used in some databases, such as LexisNexis.
You use the command like this,
baseball w/2 stadium
( ) = Nesting
Nesting allows you to build complex queries. You nest queries using parentheses, like this:
impeachment AND (clinton OR nixon)
Major search engines such as Google, Ask.com and Yahoo! do not support nesting. However, Live Search supports nesting as do some databases such as LexisNexis.
Power Search Commands
Phrase Searching
Practically all the major search engines support phrase searching. Phrase searching is where a search engine will find documents that contain words in the exact order you specify. You do this by enclosing your terms with "quotation marks". For example a search on "distance learning courses" would retrieve only pages that have all those words in that exact order and would not retrieve a site that said "learning at a distance". Be careful using this type of search. You may be narrowing your search too much or using a combination of words that is not found in the indexed pages. This could render zero results even though there may be something relevant on the pages.
Title and Site Searching
Major search engines allow you to search within the HTML title of a web page and/or by type of Web site (.com, .gov, .edu., etc). These options are built into the "Advanced Search" options on Google, Ask.com, & Live Search.
* = Wildcards
You can search for plurals or variations of words using a wildcard character. It is also a great way to search if you don't know the spelling of a word. The * symbol is used as the wildcard symbol.
The format looks like this:
- learn* - finds learning and learners
- hous* - finds houses and housing
Google supports full-word wild cards such as star * banner, and is supported in databases such as LexisNexis, but will not work in Yahoo! Ask.com, or Live Search. Single letter wild cards, such was wom*n do not work in most major search engines. We recommend that you become familiar and comfortable using 2-3 search engines. Remember to review the special features that each search engine offers to get the most out of your online time.