Searching Techniques
These fast and easy Search Techniques will have you Surfin' the Internet in no time!
A search engine is simply a web site that is connected to a database. When you query (request information from) a search engine you are not searching the Internet. Instead, you are searching the web-site descriptions that have been submitted to that particular search engine.
Search engines can be a great help when trying to find a particular site. But, they can also be quite frustrating. It is quite common to be returned a list of tens of thousands of possible matches. To narrow this down most search engines allow the user to refine their search by using the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. Many sites also allow you to search using parentheses and quotations. The general use of these is provided below.
Please keep in mind that search engines vary from one to another. For this reason. We recommend that you always use the search engine's help or tip page.
Click to reach our Search Engines page. This page has a variety of popular and very commonly used search engines.
Boolean Operators and Their Uses
|
General Use |
Operators |
Example | Explanation |
| AND | Criteria1 AND Criteria2 | apple AND pie | Finds only pages with BOTH criteria |
| + | Criteria1 + Criteria2 | apple + pie | Same as AND |
| OR | Criteria1 OR Criteria2 | dogs OR cats | Find pages with either criteria |
| NOT | Criteria1 NOT Criteria2 | pets NOT birds | Finds pages with criteria1 NOT criteria2 |
| " " | "any phrase place or name" | "apple pie recipes" | Most specific search |