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Handout1 Using Search Engines

The document provides tips for using search engines more effectively. It discusses using operators like +, -, AND, OR to search for required or excluded words or phrases. It also describes using wildcards like * and % to match partial words. Finally, it lists some major search engines and their URLs.

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edemkb
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
78 views

Handout1 Using Search Engines

The document provides tips for using search engines more effectively. It discusses using operators like +, -, AND, OR to search for required or excluded words or phrases. It also describes using wildcards like * and % to match partial words. Finally, it lists some major search engines and their URLs.

Uploaded by

edemkb
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tips for using Search Engines

Knowledge is no more hidden; it is only hidden if you don’t seek for


it.

Searching For Required Words

A
search engine is a program that searches
documents for specified keywords and You can type the plus sign (+) or the word
returns a list of the documents where the AND before a word to require that it be
keywords were found. Although search found in all of the search results. For
engine is really a general class of programs, the example, giants +baseball (include a space
term is often used to specifically describe systems between the first word and the + symbol) or
like Google, Alta Vista and Excite that enable giants AND baseball returns all listings that
users to search for documents on the World Wide contain "baseball" and "giants" but not
Web and USENET newsgroups. necessarily together.

Typically, a search engine works by sending out a Searching For Excluded Words
“spider” to fetch as many documents as possible.
Another program, called an indexer, then reads
these documents and creates an index based on the Use the minus sign (-) before a word or the
words contained in each document. Each search word NOT to require that it not be found in
engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its the search results. For example, giants -
indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results baseball (include a space between the first
are returned for each query. word and the - symbol) or giants NOT
baseball lists sites containing "giants" but not
"baseball." Some engines like AND NOT
If you have a general subject in mind (like "coins"), (two words) or ANDNOT (one word) better
type the word or words in the Search box and click than just NOT.
the Search button. Results are usually listed in
order of relevancy based on keywords and other
factors. Searching For Multiple Words

Use the word OR to require that one or the


Advanced Search Features other term be found in the search results. For
example, giants OR baseball (include a space
If you know exactly what you want, you can get on each side of the OR) lists sites containing
better results by entering very specific information "giants" or "baseball." You can combine
into the Search box. Despite differences in each AND, OR, AND NOT by using parentheses.
search engine's tools, there are tools that many For example, to find documents that contain
search engines have in common. the word giants but not either the word
baseball or football type giants NOT
Searching for an Exact Phrase (baseball OR football). You could also type
this giants -(baseball OR football). Note:
You cannot begin a search with a "-" term.
To require that an entire phrase be found in a
search,enter quotes (" ") around the terms. For You must put some other search term first.
example, "giants baseball" returns listings where
the words "giants" and "baseball" appear together Using Wildcards
and in that order, either in the title, the URL of
the Web site, the description, the keywords, or the You can use the asterisk (*) character to
document. If no sites are found that contain both indicate a wildcard search. This is useful when
terms, sites that contain either term will be you are trying to match a term that may or
displayed. may not be plural or might use one of several
verb tenses. For example chemi* will find
results containing words that begin with

Handout- tips for using search engines. Prepared by Edem K. Bankas 1


'chemi' (e.g. chemical, chemistry, sites containing words beginning with 'gene'
chemist). You must have at least four non- and ending with 'logy,' separated by a single
wildcard characters in a word before you letter (e.g. genealogy and geneology) which is
introduce a wildcard. This is not necessary useful for commonly misspelled words. You
for plurals because a search on cat will can also use multiple wildcards within a single
also return results containing the word word.
cats, and a search on cats will return
results containing the word cat.

Some search engines support two


wildcards. The asterisk (*) is used to
replace multiple characters and the
percent (%) symbol is used to replace
only one character. For example
psych*ist will find all results which
contain words that begin and end with
'psych' and 'ist' (e.g. psychologist,
psychiatrist), and gene%logy will return

Major Search Engines


Search Engine URL

AOL Search http://search.aol.com/aolcom/webhome

All The Web http://www.alltheweb.com/

Ask.com http://www.askjeeves.com/

Excite http://www.excite.com/

Google http://www.google.com/

HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/

LookSmart http://www.looksmart.com/

Lycos http://www.lycos.com/

MSN Search http://search.msn.com/

Netscape Search http://search.netscape.com/

Search.com http://www.search.com/

Snap http://www.snap.com/

WebCrawler http://www.webcrawler.com/

Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/

Reference: http://www.about-the-web.com/shtml/search.shtml#ses_vs_dirs

Handout- tips for using search engines. Prepared by Edem K. Bankas 2

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