Tips
for Better Searching
Tips
for Better Searching| In general, do not capitalize. Always use lower case. |
e.g. If you enter star you will receive hits for Star, STAR, staR, ............... However if you are seeking info on the country of China start it with a capital C. This will exclude many sites on china dishes. |
| Spell it right. | A search engine can not read or guess any misspelled words. |
| Be specific. | e.g. Using grizzly instead of bear will narrow your search to only grizzlies instead of all bears. |
| Put phrases or words that go together in quotes. (" ") | e.g. Use double quotation marks around "the little mermaid" to ensure words are searched exactly as is, with the words side by side in the same order. |
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Adding a "+" before a search word will require it to be in every resulting hit. Use AND between words that you want in the site. |
e.g. + hibernation +bears (There is no space between the + sign and the word) e.g. hibernation AND bears This will retrieve all sites containing hibernation and bears (not hibernating squirrels). Hibernation and bears must be present in the site! |
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Place a minus sign - in front of words you wish to not have in the site. Use NOT between words that you wish to not have in the site. |
e.g. +"lung cancer" +bronchitis -smoking (There is no space between the minus sign and the word) e.g. "lung cancer" AND bronchitis NOT smoking This will retrieve all sites lung cancer and bronchitis but not smoking. |
| Use wild card * to look for variations in word forms. The asterisk covers all possible extensions. | e.g. library* will find libraries, librarian, librarians, etc. |
| Use title: to focus your search and find pages that are primarily about one thing. | e.g. title:frog* |
To
find that which you seek within a huge page, use the "Find
in Page" option of your browser.
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