Searching for information can be time consuming and confusing due to the vast
amount of information on the World Wide Web. Fortunately there are some basic
commands which will greatly improve the results obtained from your searches.
|
Command
|
Symbol
|
Example
|
|
Include Term |
+ |
rose +bush ensures search results have both
words you enter not just one of them - no space between the add symbol and
the term that follows
|
| Exclude Term |
- |
halloween -candy allows you to subtract terms
that are not of interest - no space between symbol and term that follows
|
| Phrase |
" " |
“Yosemite camping reservations” brings results
that will have all the search words and in the exact order entered
|
| Match Any Term |
OR |
star wars OR trek requires that at least one
of the terms is present in the results - OR must be upper case
|
| Match Both Terms |
BOTH |
camping BOTH Yosemite Park ensures that both
terms are included in the results - BOTH must be in upper case (practice
matching both terms using Google search engine)
|
| Domain Restrict Search |
Use Keyword and URL |
programs site
www.sait.ca results are from the SAIT domain and
specifically the pages that have the keyword programs in them - a
space follows the keyword prior to the site address or URL. This is a
shortcut if you know the web address but not where the specific information
is found (try this using Google)
|
| Keyword Sequence |
No Symbol |
camping reservations entered into a search box
brings different results than the reverse order: reservations camping
- the keyword in first position represents the most important
(try reversing different keywords in the search box for Google)
|
