1. SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines are very different from subject directories. While humans organize and
catalog subject directories, search engines rely on computer programs called spiders or robots
to crawl the Web and log the words on each page. With a search engine, keywords related to
a topic are typed into a search "box." The search engine scans its database and returns a file
with links to websites containing the word or words specified. Because these databases are
very large, search engines often return thousands of results. Without search strategies or
techniques, finding what you need can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
To use search engines effectively, it is essential to apply techniques that narrow results and
push the most relevant pages to the top of the results list. Below are a number of strategies for
boosting search engine performance. When a "practice" link appears, click on the link to
practice the technique with AltaVista's search engine.
IDENTIFY KEYWORDS
When conducting a search, break down the topic into key concepts. For example, to find
information on what the FCC has said about the wireless communications industry, the
keywords might be:
FCC wireless communication
BOOLEAN AND
Connecting search terms with AND tells the search engine to retrieve web pages
containing ALL the keywords.
FCC and wireless and communication
The search engine will not return pages with just the word FCC. Neither will it return pages
with the word FCC and the word wireless. The search engine will only return pages where
the words FCC, wireless, and communication all appear somewhere on the page. Thus, AND
helps to narrow your search results as it limits results to pages where all the keywords appear.
BOOLEAN OR
Linking search terms with OR tells the search engine to retrieve web pages
containing ANY and ALL keywords.
(FCC or wireless or communication)
When OR is used, the search engine returns pages with a single keyword, several keywords,
and all keywords. Thus, OR expands your search results. Use OR when you have common
synonyms for a keyword. Surround OR statements with parentheses for best results. To
narrow results as much as possible, combine OR statements with AND statements.

2. For example, the following search statement locates information on purchasing a used car:
(car or automobile or vehicle) and (buy or purchase) and used
BOOLEAN AND NOT
AND NOT tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing one keyword but not the
other.
dolphins and not Miami
The above example instructs the search engine to return web pages about dolphins but
not web pages about the "Miami Dolphins" football team. Use AND NOT when you have a
keyword that has multiple meanings. The need for AND NOT often becomes apparent after
you perform an initial search. If your search results contain irrelevant results (e.g., Saturn the
car rather than Saturn the planet), consider using AND NOT to filter out the undesired
websites.
IMPLIED BOOLEAN: PLUS & MINUS
In many search engines, the plus and minus symbols can be used as alternatives to full
Boolean AND and AND NOT. The plus sign (+) is the equivalent of AND, and theminus
sign (-) is the equivalent of AND NOT. There is no space between the plus or minus sign and
the keyword.
NOTE: AltaVista's Simple Search requires the use of plus and minus rather than AND, OR,
and AND NOT.
+welding +process
+Saturn -car
couch sofa
IMPORTANT: Use AltaVista's Simple Search for implied Boolean (+/-) searches, and use
AltaVista's Advanced Search for full Boolean (AND, OR, AND NOT) searches.
PHRASE SEARCHING
Surrounding a group of words with double quotes tells the search engine to only retrieve
documents in which those words appear side-by-side. Phrase searching is a powerful search
technique for significantly narrowing your search results, and it should be used as often as
possible.
"John F. Kennedy"

3. "Walt Disney World"
"global warming"
For best results, combine phrase searching with implied Boolean (+/-) or full Boolean (AND,
OR, and AND NOT) logic.
+"heart disease" +cause
"heart disease" and cause
The above example tells the search engine to retrieve pages where the words heart
disease appear side-by-side and the word cause appears somewhere else on the page.
NOTE ON IMPLIED BOOLEAN LOGIC (+/-): When a phrase search is combined with
additional keywords using implied Boolean logic (+/-), you must put a plus or minus sign
before the phrase as well as the other keywords. If the search involves a phrase with no
additional keywords (e.g., "Walt Disney World"), the plus sign before the quotes is optional.
PLURAL FORMS, CAPITAL LETTERS, AND ALTERNATE SPELLINGS
Most search engines interpret lower case letters as either upper or lower case. Thus, if you
want both upper and lower case occurrences returned, type your keywords in all lower case
letters. However, if you want to limit your results to initial capital letters (e.g., "George
Washington") or all upper case letters, type your keywords that way.
Like capitalization, most search engines interpret singular keywords as singular or plural. If
you want plural forms only, make your keywords plural.
A few search engines support truncation or wildcard features that allow variations in spelling
or word forms. The asterisk (*) symbol tells the search engine to return alternate spellings for
a word at the point that the asterisk appears. For example, capital* returns web pages with
capital, capitals, capitalize, and capitalization.
TITLE SEARCH
Field searching is one of the most effective techniques for narrowing results and getting the
most relevant websites listed at the top of the results page. A web page is composed of a
number of fields, such as title, domain, host, URL, and link. Searching effectiveness
increases as you combine field searches with phrase searches and Boolean logic. For
example, if you wanted to find information about George Washington and his wife Martha,
you could try the following search:
+title:"George Washington" +President +Martha
title:"George Washington" and President and Martha

4. The above TITLE SEARCH example instructs the search engine to return web pages where
the phrase George Washington appears in the title and the words President and Martha appear
somewhere on the page. Like plus and minus, there is no space between the colon (:) and the
keyword.
DOMAIN SEARCH
In addition to the title search, other helpful field searching strategies include the domain
search, the host search, the link search, and the URL search. The DOMAIN
SEARCH allows you to limit results to certain domains such as websites from the United
Kingdom (.uk), educational institutions (.edu), or government sites (.gov).
+domain:uk +title:"Queen Elizabeth"
domain:uk and title:"Queen Elizabeth"
+domain:edu +"lung cancer" +smok*
domain:edu and "lung cancer" and smok*
The current U.S. domains are the following:
.com = a commercial business
.edu = an educational institution
.gov = a governmental institution
.org = a non-profit organization
.mil = a military site
.net = a network site
Most websites originating outside the U.S. have a country domain indicating the country of
origin.
HOST SEARCH
The HOST SEARCH comes in handy when you need to find something located at a large
site that does not have an internal search engine. With this search technique, you can search
all the pages at a website (contained in the engine's database) for keywords or phrases of
interest.
NOTE: Because the major search engines do not always log an entire website, use an internal
search engine, if the website has one, for best results.
+host:www.disney.com +"special offer"

5. host:www.disney.com and "special offer"
URL SEARCH
The URL SEARCH limits search results to web pages where the keyword appears in the
URL or website address. A URL search can narrow very broad results to web pages devoted
to the keyword topic.
+url:halloween +title:stories
url:halloween and title:stories
LINK SEARCH
Use the LINK SEARCH when you want to know what websites are linked to a particular
site of interest. For example, if you have a home page and you are wondering if anyone has
put a link to your page on their website, use the Link search. Researchers use link searches
for conducting backward citations.
link:www.pepsi.com
link:www.ipl.org/ref/