Effective Searching & Search Operators

Question 1

Basic Search Operators

Answer 1

“example” - exact match (will match what is exactly between the quotation marks)

AND will return results that contain both those words (google defaults to this anyway but best used with other operators)

• (minus sign) will exclude what is written after it from the search

OR / | will give results that contain one or both the words

• • wildcard

(example) used like in maths to isolate operators for more advanced searches

Question 2

More Search Operators

Answer 2

site: e,g ‘site:bbc.co.uk’ will retrun all indexed pages incl pages on subdomains. Combine with other searches

intitle: search for key words or phrases in the titles of websites

allintitle: all words must be in title of website

inurl: search for key words found in urls

allinurl: all words must be in the url

intext: search for key words or phrases in the text of a website

filetype: e.g filetype:pdf search for a specific file type

cache: search for a previous version of a webpage

Using full stops …
use … to search within a range e.g year range, price range e.g “civil war “ 1907…1921

Remember you can combine many operators to create your term.

Question 3

Effective Searching - Keywords

Answer 3

Use effective key words:

-Obtain as many relevant words as possible during intake
-don’t use common words
- use unique words / distinctive names / abbreviations & acronyms
- Try to create UNIQUE quieries - think of combinations of your key words that are unlikely to appear in other document (use search operators)
- use sungular & plural
- use synonyms
- get to know the topic - use varient spelling & slang & correct terminology
- translate words if relevant
- use place names

Question 4

Effective Searching - General Tips

Answer 4

• Look before you leap
  – Enter your search query and press ‘enter’
  – Don’t start clicking blindly
  – Look at the amount of hits
  – Glance over the results at page one
  – If your desired result isn’t there, refine your query
  – Check for words to exclude
  – Use the Search Engines ‘help’ function (operators)
  – Use more than one SE or Directory service
  – Use the simplified display option