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One way to narrow your search is by creating specific relationships among keywords or phrases by using the words AND, NOT, and OR. These are otherwise known as boolean operators. You might remember such terms when studying logic in a math class! Another way to narrow a search is by using quotations.
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Keyword |
Symbol |
Action |
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AND |
+ |
Finds web pages only containing all of the specified words or phrases. Symphony AND trumpet finds pages with both the word symphony and the word trumpet. Note, this does not mean that symphony and trumpet will always appear in the same sentence! Symphony could appear at the top of the web page while trumpet could appear at the bottom of the web page. |
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NOT |
- |
Excludes web pages containing a specified word or phrase. Symphony NOT trumpet will return web pages containing the word symphony but not containing trumpet. |
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OR |
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Finds web pages containing at least one of the specified words or phrases. Symphony OR trumpet finds web pages containing either symphony or trumpet. The search results could contain both, but do not have to. |
Note: In many search engines, the keywords can be replaced by the symbol. For example, searching for "symphony AND trumpet" is the same as "symphony +trumpet."
Use of quotations:
Using quotation marks around a phrase will
narrow your search. A search for "passion fruit" will find only those
pages that include the whole term, passion fruit. In other words, web pages
with the word passion and fruit next to each other will be retrieved.
Boolean
Search Exercise:
Go to www.yahoo.com.
Use the following handout to do a Boolean search. Each group will choose one of
the topics on the board to do its search.
Handout: boolean search exercise