How to Search the Internet

Tips on Searching:
Most Search Engines let you define more than just the keywords for your search. There is a special language you can use to narrow your search. This search language uses a combination of symbols and what are known as Boolean Operators to specify exactly what you are looking for.

Use:

What the Search Engine Interprets:

Australian movies	Find "Australian OR movies".
movies +Australian	Find Web sites about movies that contain "Australian" (results must include "Australian").
movies -Australian	Find Web sites about movies that don't mention "Australian" (results must not include Australian").
"Australian movies"	Find Web sites about Australian movies (results must find occurrences of "Australian" and "movies" together).
Australian AND movies	Find Web sites containing "Australian" and "movies". This differs from the previous option in that the words do not have to be next to each other.
movies OR Australian	Find Web sites containing "movies" or "Australian" or both. Now it may find sites about Australian movies, Australian cooking, Australian fashion, Hollywood movies, old movies etc.
movies AND NOT Australian	Same as "movies-Australian"
Australian NEAR movies	This query specifies that both "Australian" and "movies" appear within ten words of each other. The NEAR operator is often useful in searching for names because of the many possible different forms that names take.

These last four options, AND, OR, NEAR and NOT are called Boolean Operators and are used to form more complex search requests using Boolean Logic.

Note how the brackets contain terms that belong together. If we hadn't used the brackets, the search engine would have interpreted it to mean: "find Web sites about movies that mention Australian and Gibson but do not mention Mad Max or Davis.

For example, if you wanted information on Australian movies that made reference to the actors Mel Gibson and Judy Davis but not Gibson's film "Mad Max", you would enter: (movies + Australian) AND (Gibson -"Mad Max") AND Davis

If a search request is ambiguous, search engines have an order for determining in which sequence operators are examined. This order is ( ), AND, OR, NOT, NEAR. The symbols + and - are not part of standard Boolean logic but have the same meaning as stronger versions of AND and AND NOT respectively. Enclosing a phrase in inverted commas "like this" is also not standard Boolean format but has the same effect as ( ).

Thanks to the Australian magazine, "Internet AU" for the information. Check this magazine out for all sorts of useful Internet information. For more useful search techniques you could also check out Alta Vista's Advanced Search pages.