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Search Engines
Major Search Engines
Metacrawlers
Metacrawlers or metasearch engines send searches to several search engines, then blend the results together.
Search Engine Tips
- Use Specific Terms
- Start with several keywords that best describe what you are looking for. If you search on a single term, you are likely to get too many results.
- Match Any Keyword
- Most search engines will list pages that have all your terms, then some of your terms by default.
- Advanced Options
- Most search engines will have an option for an advanced search that let you select certain search options. You may choose from searching on all of your terms or some of your terms. You may be able to direct you search to news organizations or shopping sites. Look for a link entitled Advanced Search or Advanced Options.
- If there is no Advanced Search feature, then try the special commands below.
- Special Commands
- Match All Keywords
- To make sure the results include all the keywords, separate them with the plus (+) symbol.
- Subtract Keywords
- If your keyword often appears in combination with another keyword that you don’t want, use the minus (-) symbol to subtract the unwanted keyword.
- For example, you want information about Bill Clinton, but don’t want to be overwhelmed by pages relating to the Monica Lewinsky episode. You could search with clinton - lewinsky.
- Match Exact Phrase
- If the words you are searching for often appear together, then narrow your search by looking for a phrase. Enclose the phrase in quotations marks (“”).
- For example, searching for the terms national, labor and college will provide 5 million search results. Searching for “national labor college” provides 5 thousand results.
- Combining Symbols
- You may combine the techniques or symbols above
More Information
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