Sequencing:

Words included in parentheses ( ) are searched before other terms.
In the phrase: "computer aided design" +(IBM or Macintosh) the string (IBM or Macintosh) would be processed first.

Phrase searching:

When quotation marks are placed around two or more words the search engine looks for those documents that contain the words in the order they appear in the quotation marks. This is useful for proper names of people and businesses, and also for limiting a search.

ice cream retrieves any document in which the word ice, and the word cream appear.
"ice cream" retrieves documents in which ice cream is mentioned.

Ranking:

The order in which search engines determine how the results that match your search will be displayed. The method varies from search engine to search engine, and can have a large effect on how productive your search is.

Truncation:

Many search engines allow the use of an asterisk * to stand for one or more letters within or at the end of a word. Using an * lets you search for a word with multiple endings, or spelling variations.

theat* will find theater or theatre
wom*n finds women or woman or womyn

Case Sensitivity:

Some search engines are sensitive to what case is used: upper [A], or lower [a]. Others recognize "interesting case", and will search for a specific combination of upper and lower case letters.  This can simplify a search for a company or proper name.

Use IBM rather than ibm
NeXt finds the company, not the word next.

AND, OR, and NOT:

Use AND when you want documents in which both terms appear.
Use OR when you want documents in which either of the two terms appear.
Use NOT when you wish to limit by excluding a term or terms.

Created by J. Barker
Last updated 11/13/98
Corrections or comments please contact: jobarker@dwu.edu