Goals:Decrease number of search results Increase number of relevant results

Method:Use any of several search tips and commandsSearch engines vary in terms of the commands

they support

Use several search terms, not one ‘Easter bunny origin’ not ‘Easter’ or ‘Easter

bunny’ Be specific

‘dog training,’ not ‘animal training’ Use synonyms to get more results

‘losing,’ ‘lose,’ ‘reduce,’ ‘reduction’ Use lower case, unless case is important

(e.g., NeXT Software)

“Search engine math”Basic tips to improve your search

Field searchingSearch for terms within specific parts of the

document (e.g., title) Boolean and other advanced commands

(e.g., AND, OR) Search assistance and display features

Features of the engines, themselves

Include term (+)To ensure word is included in searche.g., +camping +Arkansas

Exclude term (-)find pages that have one word on them, but not

another worde.g., +apples -computer

Phrase (“_”)e.g., “social psychology”

Match any termAutomatic at most (see handout)

Match all termsUse + or menu; automatic at some

Truncation/Wildcard (*)To find all forms of a wordarchaeolog* (-y, -ical, -ist)Stemming: finds all forms based on the

stem automatically

Title search -- to search for words w/in titles of web pagese.g., +title:elephant +species

Site search -- to search w/in documents on a specific sitee.g., domain:memphis.edu psychology

URL search -- to search within the text of URLse.g., url:memphis.edu

Link search -- to search for pages that link to a particular page or domaine.g., link:psyc.memphis.edu/students/../

Limit by languageSearch for documents in a particular

language Limit by date pages were created or

modified

AND returns pages containing all search terms joined by AND e.g., Mars AND planet AND life

OR returns pages containing any or all search terms joined by OR e.g., “bed and breakfast” or inn

NOT returns pages containing the first but not the second terme.g., clinton NOT lewinsky

NEAR returns pages containing keywords near each other on the pagee.g., psychology NEAR history(distance can be specified in LY & WC)

Nesting Boolean commands provides for complex queriese.g., psychology AND (social OR

cognitive) . . . If no parentheses . . .(psychology AND social) OR cognitive

Examples: (cat* OR feline*) AND “endangered species”+title:psychology +dream* -Freud*“star trek” -voyager -“deep space nine”

-“next generation” Works only if search engine supports

each command, obviously

Related SearchesSearch engine provides related searches

after a search is complete Find Similar

Provides ability to find other pages that seem similar to those you like

Search WithinDo a second search within results already

generated

Ability to sort results by date (created or modified), with most recent documents listed first

Some search engines display the date page was created or modified

* Note: dates can be unreliable (gotten from server)

Ability to increase the number of results that are displayed

For academic searches, it is best to NOT use sites such as Wikipedia. A wiki is a type of webpage that can be

edited by anyone, making the information unreliable

It is best to use .edu, .gov, or .org domains

Advanced Google searchFile typeSearch within a specific domain

Google Scholar

“The Google Game” Retrieved from:webpages.maine207.org/south/departments/lrc/google_game.doc

“Effective Web Search.” Retrieved from: www.psyc.memphis.edu/faculty/Kreuz/CAT/search.ppt