Search for Phrases and Expressions in Search Engines
This describes some common techniques about how to search for multiple phrases, with possible logical expressions, in various search engines. Links to vendor specific search expressions could provide more precise search capabilities.
Contents
Steps
- Use quotation marks. If you are looking for an exact phrase such as "to be or not be. That is the question" put the phrase in quotation marks. This will tell the search engine you want to search for this phrase being used verbatim around the web.
- Choose words. Think about words & phrases that can uniquely describe what you're searching. Bear in mind that some search engines automatically match multiple/conjugated forms of some words, while others require an exact match, even for singular or plural words. (Example: In 2005, AOL, A9, Google & Netscape by default also looked for some singular nouns or conjugated verbs "prevent"/ "preventing" and matched "e-mail" to "email"; whereas MSN Search & Yahoo required exact matches to words specified as spelled.)
- Connect words. Enter connected phrases with hyphens or quotes as a single search-item, such as "baking German-chocolate-cake" or "secret-revelation robe": connecting separate words can pinpoint the search, whereas, putting many separate words would begin matching millions of webpages containing only a few of all the words (especially after more than 3 words/items are specified).
- Connect phrases. Use logical connectors or parentheses for more complex searches such as: "blue-bird OR black-bird OR blackbird" to match any of several similar items, and find a blackbird as one or two words "black bird" etc.
- Sub-search. Be prepared to "search within resulting webpages" to further pinpoint information that might be buried hundreds or thousands of pages down the list of matching pages.
- Get details. Consult the advanced-search help about whichever search engine is being used. Many search engines treat hyphenated words as equivalent to a phrase in quotation marks: To-be-or-not-to-be.
Tips
- Think of what would be on a website.
- In other languages, the search for words, or the rank of resulting webpages, might be matched somewhat differently.
Warnings
- Particular search engines can change their word-search strategy at any time, without notice. Be prepared for changes in how phrases are matched.
- Some search engines contain very outdated webpages, many of which may no longer exist, because their host websites have been discontinued. If possible, use the remaining "ghost" webpage from the particular search engine cache to see the remaining information before it is erased from that search engine.
