Search Engine Tips
There may be times when you find that you must use a search engine such as Google or Bing to locate online information. The following are some techniques that can improve your search results.
Standard Searching
•Don't worry about upper and lower case: Most search engines are not case sensitive.
•Use keywords: i.e. martin luther reformation instead of What was Martin Luther's role in the Reformation?
•Use quotation marks: The software will look for the exact phrase, not just any combination of those words. i.e. "martin luther"
•Use the * (asterisk) character: The asterisk acts as a placeholder to stand in for a word or words in a phrase; i.e. "a * by any other name" retrieves "a rose by any other name" in addition to "a geek by any other name."
•Use Boolean operators: When using more than one keyword in your search, Boolean commands help narrow your search by expanding or excluding words from the query. Be sure to CAPITALIZE Boolean operators.
- AND retrieves only sites containing both search terms. If you are looking for reggae AND "Bob Marley," the sites you retrieve must have both of those terms in the text. NOTE: Most search engines will apply the AND operator automatically when you have more than one search term.
- OR will retrieve sites that contain any of your search terms; i.e. medieval OR "middle ages" will retrieve sites including either term.
- NOT will exclude words from your search results. For instance, when searching "martin luther" NOT king, web sites about Martin Luther King, Jr. should be left out of your results list. (NOTE: A minus sign immediately in front of a word will do the same thing; i.e. "martin luther" -king.)
When using Boolean logic, which is true of the following search?
