Searching the Internet

Because of how many web pages there are, it is necessary to use a tool to find a specific page which matches your search parameters: a search engine.

To use a search engine, simply type keywords (search terms) into the appropriate field, press enter, and wait for the results. Before doing so, you need to determine which kind of words you need to enter in order to have the best chance of finding the information you seek.

The engine searches pages which contain these terms, and pages which are linked to from other pages using hyperlinks containing these terms. However, a search's results may be totally different if the keywords used are separated by spaces, surrounded by quote marks, or divided using a specific operator. Therefore, it might be necessary to refine your search using additional keywords and special operators (the table below summarises the types of operators and their effects).

If the search engine finds no results and returns a message saying something like "Your search did not match any documents", you will need to expand the search by using different terms which have to do with the subject you're looking for, or remove some of the ones used.

If the opposite happens — too many results — you will need to narrow the search by adding restrictions, such as requiring that results contain only all of the words request, or by excluding certain words.

Search operators

An example search

Let's say that you want to search for web pages about attorney generals on the search engine Altavista.

If you type:
attorney general
the engine will return all pages containing the word attorney and all pages containing the word general (as well as some containing both words, of course, but they'll be lost among all the other documents)

Now type:
attorney generals
This time, the engine only returns a limited number of pages, containing the word "attorney generals" (plural), as you have opted to leave out all the singular instances (attorney general)

By typing:
attorney general*
You now have the words attorney general and attorney generals, but there's a problem: The search is leaving out all the pages which write attorney general as:

• attorney-general
• attorneys general
• attorney-generals
• attorneys-general
• attorneys/general
• and so on.

The issue, then, is finding a way to have return all possible usages. To do so,
type:
+attorney* +general*
You'll get all the pages which contain at least one word that begins with both of the roots attorney and general/.

CONCLUSION: An optimal search must be tailored to meet your expectations; it's usually different from a basic search, but it saves you time!

Summary

Using common search engines

Here is a table showing the operators which can be used on the most common search engines:

AND	+	+	AND or &	+ or AND	Default or +	+ or AND	+ or AND
OR	no	default	OR	default or OR	no	default or OR	default or OR
NEAR	no	NEAR or ~		no	no	NEAR	no
AND NOT	-	AND NOT or !	NON or !	- or AND NOT	-	- or NOT or AND NOT	- or NOT
EXACT PHRASE	" "	" "	" "	" "	" "	" "	" "
TRUNCATING	No	*	no	no	no	no	no
ACCENTS TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT	Yes	Yes	no diff.	Yes	Yes	no diff.	Yes
CAPITALS	no diff.	no diff.	no diff.	no diff.	no diff.	no diff.	no diff.
WORD ORDER	no diff.	Yes	no diff.	no diff.	Yes	no diff.	no diff.