Techniques for Refining and Focusing Searches

SubHeading

• Boolean Operators (logical search operators)
• Plus/Minus System
• Phrases
• Truncation
• Domain Searching

• Note: Not all search engines allow all of these features. Also, capitalization and punctuation are handled in various ways.
  Check the instructions and/or help pages for a specific search engine to learn what features are available.

Boolean Operators (logical search operators):

And: searches for two or more concepts in the same document; narrows retrieval
Example: the search cats and dogs will retrieve pages that contain both the word cats and the word dogs, but it will not retrieve pages that contain only the word cats or only the word dogs.

Or: searches for two or more concepts, but not necessarily in the same document; broadens retrieval
Example: the search cats or dogs will retrieve pages that contain both the word cats and the word dogs, pages that contain only the word cats, and pages that contain only the word dogs.

Near: searches for two or more concepts in the same document within a certain distance from each other or in the same field (for instance, within 10 words of each other)
Example: the search chicago near museum retrieves pages with the word chicago and the word museum no 5 further than 10 words apart.

Not: searches for one concept but not another; narrows retrieval
(Note: Some search engines use And Not)
Example: the search jordan not michael will retrieve pages with the word jordan, but it will not retrieve pages that contain both of the words michael jordan.

Plus/Minus System: most of the search engines allow use of a + - (plus/minus) system. Place a + (plus sign) directly in front of a term that must appear; place a - (minus sign) directly in front of a term that must not appear.
Example: +bears -NFL will retrieve pages about bears and exclude pages about the NFL's Chicago Bears

Phrases: most of the search engines will allow you to search for a phrase by enclosing it in quotes.
Example: "tyrannosaurus rex" will retrieve pages with that specific phrase.

Truncation: allows you to use a wildcard character with the base of a word to retrieve all possible endings.
Example: educat* will retrieve pages with the words: educate, educates, educated, educator, educating, education, educational, etc. Truncation can be used in combination with Boolean operators.

Domain Searching: allows you to limit your retrieval to a particular domain (.edu, .org, .com, .gov, .net, or any 2-letter country domain).
Example: domain:ca limits retrieval to Web pages that have the country domain for Canada, e.g. http://www.ec.gc.ca
Example: domain:edu limits retrieval to Web pages that have the education domain, e.g. http://www.umt.edu