If you know exactly what you want, you can get better results by entering very specific information into the Search box. Despite differences in each search engine's tools, there are tools that many search engines have in common.
- Searching for an Exact Phrase
- To require that an entire phrase be found in a search,enter quotes (" ") around the terms. For example,"giants baseball" returns listings where the words "giants" and "baseball" appear together and in that order, either in the title, the URL of the Web site, the description, the keywords, or the document. If no sites are found that contain both terms, sites that contain either term will be displayed.
- Searching For Required Words
- You can type the plus sign (+) or the word AND before a word to require that it be found in all of the search results. For example, giants +baseball (include a space between the first word and the + symbol) or giants AND baseball returns all listings that contain "baseball" and "giants" but not necessarily together.
- Searching For Excluded Words
- Use the minus sign (-) before a word or the word NOT to require that it not be found in the search results. For example, giants -baseball (include a space between the first word and the - symbol) orgiants NOT baseball lists sites containing "giants" but not "baseball." Some engines like AND NOT (two words) or ANDNOT (one word) better than just NOT.
- Searching For Multiple Words
- Use the word OR to require that one or the other term be found in the search results. For example,giants OR baseball (include a space on each side of the OR) lists sites containing "giants" or "baseball." You can combine AND, OR, AND NOT by using parentheses. For example, to find documents that contain the word giants but not either the word baseball or football type giants NOT (baseball OR football). You could also type this giants -(baseball OR football). Note: You cannot begin a search with a "-" term. You must put some other search term first.
- Using Wildcards
- You can use the asterisk (*) character to indicate a wildcard search. This is useful when you are trying to match a term that may or may not be plural or might use one of several verb tenses. For examplechemi* will find results containing words that begin with 'chemi' (e.g. chemical, chemistry, chemist). You must have at least four non-wildcard characters in a word before you introduce a wildcard. This is not necessary for plurals because a search on cat will also return results containing the word cats, and a search on cats will return results containing the word cat.Some search engines support two wildcards. The asterisk (*) is used to replace multiple characters and the percent (%) symbol is used to replace only one character. For example psych*ist will find all results which contain words that begin and end with 'psych' and 'ist' (e.g. psychologist, psychiatrist), andgene%logy will return sites containing words beginning with 'gene' and ending with 'logy,' separated by a single letter (e.g. genealogy and geneology) which is useful for commonly misspelled words. You can also use multiple wildcards within a single word.