Advanced Search Techniques

Searching for simple things like "Jeep" or "Washington" is very easy for most people. A problem arises however when you need to search for something specific, but requires more than one word.

Most Search Engines and Directories provide for advanced searching, but their methods vary from system to system. Primarily two types of advanced searches are supported, Phrase searches and Boolean Searches. Each of these types of searches have their strengths and weaknesses. Set up a couple of hypothetical items we want to search on and look at how we can accomplish them using the two techniques.

Phrase Searching

Perhaps the easiest of the advanced techniques, phrase searching allows you to search on multiple words for one topic. For example searching on information concerning Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., You might be inclined to search on Martin Luther King.

Looking over your results in a typical Search Engine, you would be surprised to discover that searching on Martin Luther King returned pages for Martin Luther King, BB King, Kings in general, the Christian reformation, Martin Landau. In other words the Search Engine took your three words; Martin, Luther, and King and assumed you were looking for web pages with references to any of these words in them.

If you want a Search Engine to do a phrase search you need to inform the search engine that the words you are looking for need to by grouped together. So don't search for Martin Luther King, instead search for "Martin Luther King". By enclosing the keywords within quotes you are basically informing the search engine that all three words have to be present on the page and in close proximity to one another.

Some Search Engines will allow phrase searching, others will not. When in doubt, look on the main page of the search engine for either a help file link or for their FAQ.

Boolean Searching

Named after an English mathematician, Boolean searching refers to a form of logic applied to the search. Basically a Boolean search requires some additional words to be used, for example searching on the words "Cancer" and "treatment". This type of search allows you to exclude websites which may be about Cancer, the constellation, or the horoscope sign.

Boolean Searches require using certain keywords, while these keywords may vary from search engine to search engine, the concepts are the same.

AND - Search on Term1 AND Term2

OR - Search on Term1 OR Term2

NOT - Search on Term1 but NOT Term2

An example of AND searching could be;

Washington and Lincoln - Look for webpages which contain both words "Washington" and "Lincoln".

Washington or Lincoln - Look for webpages which contain either the word "Washington" OR the word "Lincoln", or both.

Washington not Lincoln - Look for webpages which contain the word "Washington" and do not contain the word "Lincoln".

Some systems have the ability to group Boolean terms using parenthesis. i.e.;

(Washington and Lincoln) not Roosevelt - Look for webpages which contain the words "Washington" and "Lincoln" but do not contain the word "Roosevelt".

Washington and not George - Look for webpages which contain the word "Washington", and do not have the word "George" in them.

Boolean searching, given these simple, yet powerful, capabilities allows someone to quickly narrow their searches so that the results of a search may quickly pinpoint the information they need. The more terms you are able to add to the search specification, the finer the results you will have in the search engines.