Develop a Search Strategy
Depending on how you enter your Internet search, you can get
thousands of results (hits). Therefore, it is helpful to have a search
strategy. To help develop your strategy, it is useful to have an
understanding of the overall operation of the web and possible problems
you may encounter. A good practice is to use the most specific search
terms to describe your topic.
- Directories and search engines allow you to locate useful sites. Directories classify web sites by subject. Yahoo
is a well known Internet directory. Search engines index words within
the documents on web pages & match them to your search. Google, Teoma, & ALLTheWeb
are examples of search engines. No search engine or directory covers
all of the Internet's documents. Most cover one half or less.
- A MetaSearch engine submits your keywords to
several search engines and their databases simultaneously. Within a few
seconds, you get back the combined results from all the search engines
queried.
- Use "Help" in each directory or search engine to find the best way to formulate your search.
- If you want to find an exact phrase, use "quotation marks" around
the phrase when you enter words in the search box. EXAMPLE: "apple pie"
- Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT, NEAR
- Some search engines or directories are case sensitive requiring
upper case or lower case, while some accept either upper or lower.
- AND locates only documents containing all specified words or
phrases. A "+" before each word essentially "ANDs" the search terms.
- Examples: dogs and cats locates only documents containing both dogs and cats
+personnel +theories
personnel AND theories
- OR locates documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases.
Example: dogs or cats locates documents containing dogs, locates documents containing cats, and locates documents containing both.
- NOT excludes documents containing the specified word or phrase.
"-" is equivalent to NOT and means to exclude the term; the "-" should
be placed directly in front of the search term. Example: dogs not cats or dogs -cats locates only documents containing dogs but not cats.
- NEAR finds documents containing both specified words or phrases within 10 words of each other. Example: dogs near cats locates only documents containing dogs within 10 words of cats.
- ( ) means the Boolean operators can be nested using parentheses. Example: dogs and (cats not kittens) near food
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