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2 - Search Strategies
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The following tips may help you find what you are looking for.
- Think about what you want to find
- Identify key words and try to keep them to a minimum. Try using one key word if possible and enter this word in the search box. (explore the websites that are listed to find the information you require. If you can not find the information that you are looking for, carry out another search using more key words to make your search more specific (use quotes “ “or plus signs + with your key words as necessary. See details on the next page).
- If you do not get a good result, think about alternative words that can be used and try again
- Check your spelling
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Search engines return websites with words that match your keywords. If you misspell a keyword, you may not get the websites that you are looking for.
If you still can not find what you want, maybe the following tips can help.
Searching for an Exact Phrase
To require that an exact phrase be found in a search,enter quotes (" ") around the terms. For example, "ford mondeo" returns listings where the words "ford" and "mondeo" appear together and in that order. If no sites are found that contain both terms, no web sites will be displayed.
Searching For Required Words
You can type the plus sign (+) or the word AND before a word to require that it be found. For example, ford +mondeo (include a space between the first word and the + symbol) or ford AND mondeo returns all listings that contain "ford" and "mondeo" but not necessarily together.
Searching For Excluded Words
Use the minus sign (-) before a word or the word NOT to require that it not be found in the search results. For example, ford -mondeo (include a space between the first word and the - symbol) or ford NOT mondeo lists sites containing "chocolate" but not "dessert.
Searching For Multiple Words
Use the word OR to require that one or the other term be found in the search results.
For example, ford mondeo OR fiesta (include a space on each side of the OR) lists sites containing ford mondeo or ford fiesta.
You can combine AND, OR, and NOT by using parentheses.
For example, to find documents that contain the word ford but not the words mondeo or fiesta type ford NOT (mondeo or fiesta).
You could also type this ford -(mondeo or fiesta).
(Note: You cannot begin a search with a "-" term. You must put some other search term first.)
Plural Forms, Capital Letters and Alternate
Most search engines interpret lower case letters as either upper or lower case. Thus, if you want both upper and lower case occurrences returned, type your keywords in all lower case letters. However, if you want to limit your results to initial capital letters (e.g., "George Washington") or all upper case letters, type your keywords that way.
Like capitalisation, most search engines interpret singular keywords as singular or plural. If you want plural forms only, make your keywords plural.
A few search engines support truncation or wildcard features that allow variations in spelling or word forms. The asterisk (*) symbol tells the search engine to return alternate spellings for a word at the point that the asterisk appears. For example, capital* returns web pages with capital, capitals, capitalise, and capitalisation.
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