Topic+3+-+Search+Smarter+not+Harder+(Refining+a+Search)



Even with using all these different search engines and meta-search engines it may still be hard for you to find what you are looking for. Some techniques for searching more effectively we will find in this topic. Phrase searching is a technique used to search for words that appear in a certain order. To search this way you need to put the words in quotations like “Fire Truck” and then your results will have the words fire truck next to each other. Without the quotations you would have result where the words fire and truck could be found anywhere on the page.

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The next way to refine a search is by using plus (+) and minus (-) signs. Using a plus sign before a word will only show websites that have that word in it. An example of this is if searching for (New York Yankees +Derek +Jeter) results would have Derek Jeter in it but may or may not have New, York, or Yankees on the result link. A minus sign in front of a word or words like (-New -York -Yankees Derek Jeter) will exclude the word or words only showing results that do not contain words that have minus signs. In this case with my example, results will only show links to resources that are about Derek Jeter and will not mention the New York Yankees.

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Boolean logic is another technique for refining searches. This search uses the words AND, NOT, or OR to limit the results. AND combines results in a search. For example, searching Game AND Mario results will only be provided that have Mario game in it. Using NOT, Mario NOT Game will give result that have Mario but game will not appear on the result pages. Using OR will give one, both, or the other. With a search like Mario OR Game, results could have one or both of the words in it. When using this method to refine your search, it is important to make sure that the search engine supports this type of search. Google, for example will only search using Boolean logic if the words appear in all caps.

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