Search Syntax

Getting the most out of search engines means knowing the search syntax used by each engine.  Below you'll find an explanation of the syntax you're most likely to encounter.

Boolean operators - Most engines use AND, OR, and NOT (sometimes AND NOT).  Less common is the operator NEAR. Refer to the comparison chart below to see which engines use this feature.

Examples:

• A search for cats AND dogs will return pages that contain both words.
• A search for cats OR dogs will return pages that contain either of the words.
• A search for cats NOT dogs (or in the case of some engines cats AND NOT dogs) will return pages that contain the word cats, but not dogs.  This can be tricky.  You may only want information on cats, but there could also be a great page with information about cats that also has the word dogs on it somewhere.  This page would be excluded in your search.  Therefore, exercise caution when you use this operator in a Boolean search.
• A search for cats NEAR dogs will return pages where the words are near each other at some specific distance apart.  The search engines
  that offer this feature use it in different ways, so refer to the chart below
  for more details.
• Boolean searches can be enhanced by using parentheses around portions of your Boolean query.  A search for pets AND (iguanas OR lizards) will return pages with the word pets and either of the words iguanas or lizards.

+ (plus) and - (minus) - Put these characters before search terms to force their inclusion (+) or exclusion (-) in a search.  Using the plus sign in a search is similar to using the Boolean operator AND.  Using the minus sign is similar to using the Boolean operator NOT.  The caveats that apply to using NOT in a search also apply to using the minus sign in a search.  Refer to the comparison chart below to see which engines use this feature.

Phrase searching - Putting quotes (") around a string of words that you want to search will return pages where those words appear next to each other and in order.  For example: "Green Bay Packers", "White House", "money market account".  Refer to the comparison chart below to see which engines use this feature.

Wildcards (also referred to as word stemming or truncation) - Some engines allow you to use a wildcard character (*) at the end of words to search for plurals or alternate spellings. For example: account* would retrieve not only account, but also accounts, accounting, accountant, etc.&nbps; Refer to the comparison chart below to see which engines use this feature.

Capitalization - A few search engines are case sensitive. For example, a search for White House will bring up a much different set of results than typing in the words as white house.  In engines where case matters, capitalizing words in your search will return only pages with those words capitalized.  When you enter the words in lower case, you'll retrieve pages in which the words are both capitalized and not capitalized. Refer to the comparison chart below to see which engines use this feature.

Comparison of Features Chart