+ (plus sign)

Use it to mark words that must appear in each Web page.

If there’s no plus sign. the word can be considered a request not a

requirement (particularly if there is a suing of words).

+Elvis Presley This will require that Elvis appear. but Presley will be a

request.

— (minus sign)

Marks words that cannot appear in any Web page on the results list. Use this

to exclude pages containing a particular word.

Elvis -Costello: this will request Elvis, but exclude anything on Elvis Costello.

""(quotation marks)

Indicates exact multiple-word phrases. Without quotation

marks. the scorch engine nay assume that the phrase is a

list of separate query terms.

"Jail House Rock" will return a list of Web pages containing the exact phrase.

In contrast, the query: jail house rock (without quotes) returns pages

containing the words: jail, house, and rock, not necessarily in that order

AND

Connects two scorch terms, both of which must appear in each Web page

on the results list. Be sure to use capital AND. Most (but not all search sites

assume this operator by

default.

chantilly AND lace

OR

Connects two words, at least one of which should appear

Additional help for searching the net

on each Web page returned by the query. This is a good way to connect

synonyms or alternate spellings. Be sure to use capitol OR.

Ringo OR Starr OR Starkey

NOT

Is used much like the minus Sign to exclude words. For some engines. it must

he used with AND or OR. Be sure to use capital NOT.

Bingo AND Starr NOT Beatles

( ) (parentheses)

With parentheses. Boolean really begins to look like algebra. Use

parentheses to connect grouped terms.

Beatles AND(Lennon AND McCartney) This query should return pages

about the Beatles hat have both Lennon and McCartney mentioned in them.

* (wild card or truncation)

HotBot and most search engines will assume automatic truncation and search

on the root plus endings. In AltaVista and others, however, the asterisk

symbolizes any amount of letters chopped off or at the end of the word.

Read the tips pages. HotBot won’t return any results for a word truncated

with an asterisk.

The query term Elvis returns information about Elvis. The flying Elvi’s. Elvis’s

Graceland and Elvira.

here's a few handy-dandy search tips that will have you getting great
results the first time:
 

1. Use the minus sign to EXCLUDE keywords
Add a minus sign(-) just before the first letter of a keyword, without any
space, to exclude this word from your search. This assures that none of
the pages returned by the Search Engine will contain this word. EX:
American, football -college: you'll get information about American
football, but not college football
 

2. Use the plus sign to require a keyword
When you use several keywords in your search, most Search Engines look for
pages containing at least one of these keywords. If you want to be sure
that a keyword will appear on every page the Search Engine returns, add a
plus sign (+) before the keyword, without any space. EX: All pages returned
by the query +tips Kim Komando will contain the word "tips." Pages with the
words "Kim Komando" will be returned first.
 

3. Use quotes for multi-word phrases
Most Search Engines usually search for your keywords ANYWHERE within
Webpages. When you put double quotes (" ") around several keywords, the
Search Engine will retrieve only those pages where your keywords appear
next to each other, and in the order typed. You can use the double quotes
when searching for a precise sentence or for a person. EX: Typing in "Kim
Komando Radio Show" will bring back ONLY pages where these four words
appear next to each other in that exact order.
 

4. Use the asterisk as a wildcard
Used at the end of a word, the asterisk (*) is like an old DOS "wildcard"
and can replace up to 5 characters. It allows you to broaden your search
by including plurals, adjectives, adverbs and conjugated words. EX: Enter
in french english translat* and you'll get back documents with the words
french, english and translate, translation, translator, translating, etc.
 

Using several of these easy-to-remember tips will have you drilling right
down to wherever you want to be on the Web in no time