Web Search Terms

Stop Words

Stop words are words that many search engines DON'T stop for when searching texts and titles on the web. Ex.a, about, an, and, are, as, at, be, by, from, how, i, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, we, what, when, where, which, with, etc. Not all search engines recognize the same stop words.

BOOLEAN "AND"

The Boolean AND actually narrows your search by retrieving only documents that contain every one of the keywords you enter. The more terms you enter, the narrower your search becomes. EXAMPLE: truth AND justice EXAMPLE: truth AND justice AND ethics AND congress

BOOLEAN "NOT" / "AND NOT"

The Boolean NOT or AND NOT (sometimes typed as ANDNOT) limits your search by returning only your first keyword but not the second, even if the first word appears in that document, too. EXAMPLE: saturn AND NOT car EXAMPLE: pepsi AND NOT coke

Using Near in a search

The NEAR operator allows you to search for terms situated within a specified distance of each other in any order. The closer they are, the higher the document appears in the results list. Using NEAR, when possible, in place of the Boolean AND usually returns more relevant results. EXAMPLE: phylogeny NEAR ontogeny EXAMPLE: de Vere NEAR Shakespeare

type in lower case

Type keywords and phrases in lower case to find both lower and upper case versions. Typing capital letters will usually return only an exact match. EXAMPLE: president retrieves both president and President

quotation marks

Use double quotation marks (" ") around phrases to ensure they are searched exactly as is, with the words side by side in the same order. EXAMPLE: "bye bye miss american pie" (Do NOT put quotation marks around a single word.)

+ or - sign in search

Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to force their inclusion and/or exclusion in searches. EXAMPLE: +meat -potatoes (NO space between the sign and the keyword)

Tips for Boolean Searches

In Boolean searches, always enclose OR statements in parentheses. EXAMPLE: Yosemite (campgrounds OR reservations) Always use CAPS when typing Boolean operators in your search statements. Most engines require that the operators (AND, OR, AND NOT/NOT) be capitalized. Other engines will accept either CAPS or lower case, so you're on safe ground if you stick to CAPS. EXAMPLE: "immune system" AND homeopathic (medicine OR remedy)

Using ADJ

ADJ works as a phrase except that the two terms, which must appear adjacent to each other in the webpage, can appear in any order. EXAMPLE: Ernest ADJ Hemingway EXAMPLE: endangered ADJ species returns both Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway Ernest; endangered species and species endangered.

Combining +,- and "

Combine phrases with keywords, using the double quotes and the plus (+) and/or minus (-) signs. EXAMPLE: +cowboys +"wild west" -football -dallas (In this case, if you use a keyword with a +sign, you must put the +sign in front of the phrase as well. When searching for a phrase alone, the +sign is not necessary.)

Using find command in a document

Combine phrases with keywords, using the double quotes and the plus (+) and/or minus (-) signs. EXAMPLE: +cowboys +"wild west" -football -dallas (In this case, if you use a keyword with a +sign, you must put the +sign in front of the phrase as well. When searching for a phrase alone, the +sign is not necessary.)

NESTING -- WITH BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Nesting, i.e., using parentheses, is an effective way to combine several search statements into one search statement. Use parentheses to separate keywords when you are using more than one operator and three or more keywords. EXAMPLE: (hybrid OR electric) AND (Toyota OR Honda) (For best results, always enclose OR statements in parentheses.)

SAME and FBY

Other proximity operators, such as SAME (keywords found in the same field) and FBY (followed by), are used as advanced searching techniques in library and other specialized databases that contain bibliographic citations or references to journal articles, but are not yet employed by search engines.

PROXIMITY OPERATORS

Proximity, or positional, operators (NEAR, ADJ, SAME, FBY)

Plus sign in search terms

Put most important terms first in your keyword list; to ensure that they will be searched, put a +sign in front of each one EXAMPLE: +hybrid +electric +gas +vehicles

BOOLEAN "OR"

The Boolean OR expands your search by returning documents in which either or both keywords appear. Since the OR operator is usually used for keywords that are similar or synonymous, the more keywords you enter, the more documents you will retrieve. EXAMPLE: college OR university EXAMPLE: college OR university OR institution OR campus

Using Truncation

Use truncation (or stemming) and wildcards (e.g., *) to look for variations in spelling and word form. EXAMPLE: librar* returns library, libraries, librarian, etc. EXAMPLE: colo*r returns color (American spelling) and colour (British spelling)