| Topic |
Description |
Example |
| AND |
"AND" is a connector.
It requires that all hits (web pages that fullfil
the search criteria) must have both keywords
connected by the "AND". This
connector tends to decrease
the number of hits. |
Bulls
AND Basketball Both
"Bulls" and "Basketball"
will be present in selected web
pages.
|
| OR |
"OR" is also a
connector. It requires that either of the
connected keywords be present in the hits...or
both. This connector tends to increase
the number of hits. |
earthquake
OR seismology This
search will select web pages
that have either "earthquake" or
"seismology", or both
terms.
|
| NOT |
"NOT"
preceeds keywords that must not appear in
selected web pages. This connector tends to decrease
the number of hits. |
earthquake
NOT engineer This
search will select web
pages that include the word
"earthquake" but do not include
the word "engineer". This serves
to filter out web pages related
to engineering buildings to prevent
earthquake damage.
|
| Quotes
("") |
Quotes are used
to define phrases. Keywords that are enclosed in
quotes will searched as they appear in the
quotes. This technique is good for finding
specific titles of documents, such as "The
Declaration of Independence" |
"William
Shakespeare" This will search for pages with
the words "William" and
"Shakespeare" with the "W"
and "S" capitalized and the
remaining letters in lower case.
|
| Parentheses |
The parentheses
defines the order for keywords. Relationships or
phrases enclosed within parentheses will be
tested before relations outside of parentheses.
Think, algebra! |
(earthquake
AND recent) NOT
(engineer OR candy)This search will first find pages with
both "earthquake" and
"recent",
and
also pages with "engineer" or
"candy". This is because they are
in parentheses. Then it will
follow the NOT connector
to filter out all pages with
"engineer" or "candy".
|