Answered By: Kate Holvoet Last Updated: Jan 14, 2015 Views: 55
When you do a search in a library catalog, database, or on the web you use a structure for the words that you put in the search box. There are many different ways to choose to organize a search string that you type into a search box. Not all search options are available in all databases. For example, library catalogs use simple search options such as search term words as well as AND/OR. Library catalogs also allow you to limit a search term to a particular field in the record, such as Keyword (anywhere in the record), Author, Title, and perhaps a few other specific record field like Publisher.
Most library catalogs, databases, and web search engines have a basic search box and an Advanced Search option that will let you know the additional search types you can do.
Web search engines like Google have a very broad array of search options, or ways or organizing your search.
From Google's Punctuation, symbols & operators in search:
| Symbol | What you can use it for |
|---|---|
+ |
Search for Google+ pages or blood types Examples: +Chrome and AB+ |
@ |
Find social tags Example: @agoogler |
$ |
Find prices Example: nikon $400 |
# |
Find popular hashtags for trending topics Example: #throwbackthursday |
- |
Remove words
When you use a dash before a word or site, it excludes results that include that word or site. This is useful for words with multiple meanings, like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal. Examples: When the dash is in between multiple words, Google will know the words are strongly connected. Example: |
_ |
Connect two words like quick_sort. Your search results will find this pair of words either linked together (quicksort) or connected by an underscore (quick_sort). |
" |
When you put a word or phrase in quotes, the results will only include pages with the same words in the same order as what's inside the quotes. Note: Only use this if you're looking for an exact word or phrase, otherwise you'll exclude many helpful results by mistake. Example: "imagine all the people" |
* |
Add an asterisk within a search as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms. Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase. Example: "a * saved is a * earned" |
.. |
Separate numbers by two periods without spaces (..) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements. Example: camera $50..$100 |
Use search operators to narrow down results
Search operators are words that can be added to searches to help narrow down the results. Don’t worry about memorizing every operator - you can also use the Advanced Search page to create these searches.
Note: When you search using operators, don't add any spaces between the operator and your search terms. A search for site:nytimes.com will work, but site: nytimes.com will not.
|
Operator |
What you can use it for |
|---|---|
|
site: |
Get results from certain sites or domains. For example, you can find all mentions of "olympics" on the NBC website, or any .gov websites. |
|
link: |
Find pages that link to a certain page. For example, you can find all the pages that link to google.com. |
|
related: |
Find sites that are similar to a URL you already know. If you search for related sites to the time.com, you'll find other news publication sites you may be interested in. |
|
OR |
Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms. |
|
info: |
Get information about a URL, including the cached version of the page, similar pages, and pages that link to the site. |
|
cache: |
See what a page looks like the last time Google crawled the site. |
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