Meta Search Engine Tips
|
How to Meta Search
|
| As many of the terms
as possible:refreshing cement pool |
Separate search terms
with spaces between words tells the Search Engine to search
for pages with as many of the terms as possible. Search Engines
will try to find pages containing all your words and phrases,
but may settle for some of those words if that is impossible. |
| All of the terms:
+Wheat +Breador, Wheat and
Bread |
Place a plus (+)
before any word that is required; or place the word “AND”
(without the quotation marks) between two words or phrases
that must be included. Search Engines will only return pages
that contain all of the words.If some words are mandatory
but others are optional, place the + before
only the mandatory words (for example, surgical +hair +restore
if you are less concerned about surgery and more concerned
with hair restoration of any type. |
| Omit a term: Music
-Jazz |
Place a minus (-)
before any word that must not be present. Alternatively, place
the words NOT, AND NOT or
ANDNOT before that word.For example, Music
-Jazz if you are looking for pages on music but don't want
to find Jazz related pages. |
| Phrase: "Old
Pueblo" |
Place a phrase in quotes
if all the words need to appear together as a phrase, and
not scattered about the page. For example, a search for "Old
Pueblo" is more likely to find websites
devoted to Tucson Arizona than an ancient Indian village of
the southwestern U.S. |
| Capitalization:
TidBITSshoes |
Type your search words
in all lowercase if you don't care whether the results are
capitalized or not (case insensitive). If
you do care, and are looking for the Macintosh publication
TidBITS, type your desired capital and lowercase letters to
avoid words that aren't capitalized the same way (case
sensitive). |
| Wildcards:
dog* |
The asterisk (*)
represents a wildcard, meaning a placeholder for unknown characters.
It is useful when you don't remember an exact name or phrase
or when you want to retrieve variations on a word.For example,
the search dog* might return sites discussing dogs sites or
discussing dogma and any other similar words that begin with
dog. |
| Parentheses:
computer and (repair or
networking) |
Construct complex queries
by mixing ands, ors and nots.
Construct complex queries by mixing ands, ors and nots within
parentheses. A search for computer and (repair
or networking) would find pages with the
words computer and repair, or computer and networking, or
possibly all three words. |
| Near:birds NEAR
"endangered" |
Find terms that appear
on a page together and are close to each other. |
