Get your search right first time!
You tell a search service what
you’re looking for by typing in keywords, phrases, or questions in
the search box. The search service responds by giving you a list of all
the Web pages in their index relating to those topics. The most relevant
content appears at the top of the results.
Here's an example:
1. Type recipe oatmeal raisin cookies in the search box.
2. Press the Search button or press the Enter key.
3. The Results page will show you numerous pages on the Web about
recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies.
Tip:
Don't worry if you find a large number of results. In fact, use more than
a couple of words when searching. Even though the number of results will
be large, the most relevant content will always appear at the top of the
result pages.
Use a phrase
You can link words and numbers together into
phrases if you want specific words or numbers to appear together in your
result pages. If you want to find an exact phrase, use "double
quotation marks" around the phrase.
Example #1: To find lyrics
by Elvis, type "you ain't nothing but a hound
dog" in the search box.
Simple Tips for More Exact Searches
When in doubt,
use lowercase text in your searches
When you use lowercase text, the search service
finds both upper and lowercase results. When you use upper case text,
the search service finds only upper case.
Example: When you search
for paris, you'll find Paris, paris, and PARIS in
your result pages. However, when you search for Paris, you'll only
see Paris in the result pages.
Including
or excluding words
To make sure that a specific word is always included in your search topic,
place the plus (+) symbol before the key
word in the search box. To make sure that a specific word is always excluded
from your search topic, place a minus (-)sign
before the keyword in the search box.
Example: To find recipes
for cookies with oatmeal but without raisins, try recipe cookie+oatmeal-raisin.
Expand your search using wildcards (*)
By typing an * at the end of a keyword,
you can search for the word with multiple endings.
Example: Try wish*, to find wish, wishes, wishful, wishbone,
and wishy-washy.
Viewing your
search results in your native language:
Using the Language pull-down menu in the search
box, you can find all the documents on the Web about a given topic, originally
written in a specific language. This type of search excludes other Web
sites written in other languages so that you can make your search even
more exact.
Example: If you select the Italian pull-down option when
searching for Roma, you will see result pages including the word
Roma written on Italian Web pages.
FANCY FEATURES FOR TYPICAL SEARCHES
AltaVista, for instance, searches
more than just text. Here are all of the other ways you can search on
the Net:
anchor:text
Finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the text
of a hyperlink. anchor:"Click here to visit AltaVista"
would find pages with "Click here to visit AltaVista" as a link.
applet:class
Finds pages that contain a specified Java applet.
domain:domainname
Finds pages within the specified domain. Use domain:de to find pages from
Germany, or use domain:org to find pages from organizations.
host:name
Finds pages on a specific computer. The search host:altavista.digital.com
would find pages on the AltaVista computer, and host:dilbert.unitedmedia.com
would find pages on the computer called dilbert at unitedmedia.com.
image:filename
Finds pages with images having a specific filename. Use image:elvis to
find pages with images called elvis.
link:URLtext
Finds pages with a link to a page with the specified URL text. Use link:altavista.digital.com
to find all pages linking to AltaVista.
text:text
Finds pages that contain the specified text in any part of the page other
than an image tag, link, or URL. The search text:cow9 would find all pages
with the term cow9 in them.
title:text
Finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the page title
(which appears in the title bar of most browsers). The search title:Elvis
would find pages with Elvis in the title.
url:text
Finds pages with a specific word or phrase in the URL. Use url:altavista
to find all pages on all servers that have the word altavista in the host
name, path, or filename--the complete URL, in other words.
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