SEARCH ENGINE BASICS- THE SEARCH HELPER Randy Abdallah, Arts/Technology Specialist

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1 Google search basics: Basic search help Search is simple: just type whatever comes to mind in the search box, hit Enter or click on the Google Search button, and Google will search the web for pages that are relevant to your query. Most of the time you'll find exactly what you were looking for with just a basic query. However the following tips can help you refine your technique to make the most of your searches. Throughout the article, we'll use square brackets [ ] to signal queries, so [ black and white ] is one query, while [ black ] and [ white ] are two. Some basic facts Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used. There are some exceptions. Search is always case insensitive. Searching for [ new york times ] is the same as searching for [ New York Times ]. With some exceptions, punctuation is ignored (that is, you can't search and other special characters). Guidelines for better search Keep it simple. If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place, or product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good. Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying [ my head hurts ], say [ headache ], because that's the term a medical page will use. The query [ in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? ] is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query [ bats are considered good luck in ] or even just [ bats good luck ], because that is probably what the right page will say. Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example, [ weather cancun ] is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer [ weather report for cancun mexico ]. Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,' 'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need. For example, [ celebrity ringtones ] is more descriptive and specific than [ celebrity sounds ].

2 How to read search results Google's goal is to provide you with results that are clear and easy to read. The diagram below points out four features that are important to understanding the search results page: 1. The title: The first line of any search result is the title of the webpage. 2. The snippet: A description of or an excerpt from the webpage. 3. The URL: The webpage's address. 4. Cached link: A link to an earlier version of this page. Click here if the page you wanted isn't available. All these features are important in determining whether the page is what you need. The title is what the author of the page designated as the best short description of the page. The snippet is Google's algorithmic attempt to extract just the part of the page most relevant to your query. The URL tells you about the site in general.

3 HERE IS SOME MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ALTERNATE SEARCH ENGINES: YAHOO Directory For browsing subject categories (unrated sites) Use + (with no space) before a word which must appear. +cats Use - (no space) before a word which must NOT appear. -theater Enclose phrases or words which must appear together in double quotation marks. "Siamese cats" YAHOO OPTIONS PAGE: Choose whether you want to include all search terms (AND), only one of your search terms (OR) or an exact phrase. Note that Yahoo has MANY specialized search directoriesl ALTAVISTA ADVANCED SEARCH updated 1/99 help: For searching all text on (almost) all Web sites Best used for hard-to-find obscure topics For the top searching field: Use a + immediately before words which must be included. +water Use a - immediately before words which must be excluded. -fresh Place words which must appear together in quotation marks. "Atlantic Ocean" For boolean searching on advanced search page: Use AND between words that must be included. Hindu AND indian Use OR if one of your words must be included. Indian OR indian Use NOT if your word must NOT be included. NOT American Use AND NOT with multiple words if your next word must NOT be included. indian AND NOT American Use NEAR between words which must be within 10 words of each other. Ganges NEAR river Use PARENTHESES around a phrase or group of words that must occur together. (Ganges river) OR (Ganges River) AltaVista IS case-sensitive. Use capitals when you want capitals!

4 INFOSEEK Power Search updated 1/99 For searching all text on most Web sites For finding many relevant sites Use + (no space) before a word which must appear. +hockey Use - (no space) before a word which must NOT appear. -Bruins Use double quotations marks around a phrase or words which must appear together. "sunset cruise" InfoSeek IS case-sensitive. Use capitals when you want capitals! NOTE: New advance Infoseek form which does not require search operators: See also: Windweaver's InfoSeek review and search guide. WEBCRAWLER Searching For finding popular sites or common topics Use AND between words which must appear. fish AND boat Use OR between words when one must appear. sea OR ocean Enter OR between singular and plural if you want to search for both. ocean OR oceans Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude. NOT Atlantic Use NEAR/n for words which must be a specified number of words from each other (n is your number). coat NEAR/6 fur Use ADJ for words which must be adjacent to each other, in the order you have indicated. Charlie ADJ Brown Use " " for a phrase. "Remember the Alamo" See also: Windweaver's Webcrawler search guide. HOTBOThttp:// updated 1/99 (click on Search Options for more searching options) Hotbot Help

5 For searching all text on most Web sites. Use MORE OPTIONS for more search features. HotBot IS case-sensitive if you capitalize any letters. On the search options page, you can indicate stemming, - searching different variations of a word: bake, baking Select all words, any words (same as OR), exact phrase (words together), person, links or do a boolean search. For boolean search, use AND between words which must be included; OR if one word must be included. or For boolean search, put words that must appear together in quotation marks. "Boston Bruins" Use NOT before a word you wish to exclude. Woodstock AND Vermont NOT "New York" If you choose ALL words, boolean terminology won't work. Use + and - before word to refine search further. +bears If you wish, choose to search for images, audio or video files. On the search options page, you can do searches based on location, dates etc. and determine how deeply Hot Bot should search into pages on a web site. You can modify your search results to further refine your search. EXCITE Search Help For searching all text on 50 million web pages (also news, cities, newsgroups, people, businesses, reviewed sites) You can use words expressing concepts as well as keywords. Choose MORE LIKE THIS to see other related links. For regular search: Use + (without a space) before words that must be included; or use AND (in caps) for multiple words. +Native +American Native AND American Use OR (in caps) between words if one must included. OR Use -(without a space) before a word or AND NOT you wish to exclude. +maple -tree maple AND NOT tree Use quotes to enclose a phrase. "ice skating" For Boolean search: You may choose to use Boolean terminology: AND, AND NOT, OR rather than + or -, as indicated in above choices. Use parentheses to group parts of a Boolean expression together. Olympics AND skating AND (figure OR ice)

6 Metacrawler MultiSearch OR Search tips: FOR SEARCHING MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES SIMULTANEOUSLY: AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek, InfoSpace s Ultimate Directory, Lycos, Thunderstone, WebCrawler, and Yahoo! Requires no special instructions. Choose ANY (web page must include one or more of your words) ALL (includes all of your words) or PHRASE (words must appear together), and type in your words. Search the WEB or NEWSGROUPS. Since different search engines use different search operators, specific search terminology is not always effective with Metacrawler. However, since most search engines are now using + before a word, - before a word, or quotes around phrases, you may add use these operators here to perfect your results.