Do you get too many hits, but you're too scared to try out the advanced search options? Check out Boolean operators in
your searches. The main Boolean operators are OR, AND, NOT, and NEAR. Most search engines recognize these words as Boolean operators rather than text strings. When used between two words:
OR retrieves hits that contain one or both of the words.
AND retrieves hits that contain both of the words.
NOT retrieves hits that contain the first but do not
contain the second word.
NEAR retrieves hits on which both words appear
near each other in a webpage.
Most search engines default to the OR operator when one isn't
specified (i.e., when there's just a space between search terms), although some
default to AND. In addition, most search engines recognize the + and -
symbols as replacements for the AND and NOT operators, respectively.
If you'd like to search for an exact phrase without the default operator
mucking things up, simply place the phrase in quotation marks. For
more information about using Boolean operators in your searches, point your
browser to http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html.
If you would like to know more, please contact
us.
