Advanced Search Techniques
Nearly every search engine provides an interface for doing advanced searching. Google's is here; Yahoo's is here.
Advanced search capabilities vary by the search engine. Some of the most important features to understand about the advanced search interface of your favorite search engine are:
1. Site or domain-specific searches. This means that your search will be limited to a specific Web site (such as "colorado.edu") or a specific type of Web site (such as ".gov"). For example, this search finds the word "hurricane" only on sites with a .gov domain.
2. Results of file type ___. This feature allows you to choose a file type (such as .doc, .pdf, .xls) to search for. For example, this search only finds .pdf documents that contain the words "hurricane" and "katrina."
3. Phrase searching. This forces the search engine to treat a phrase as a single search term. For example, this search looks for any Web page containing the phrase, "When the hurricane hit". It will return only sites that include the phrase.
4. Boolean search terms. The word "boolean" comes from mathematics, and it describes a special way to search for information. Boolean searches include words like "AND," "OR," and "NOT." Using these words between the words of your search can produce much more relevant results.
Many search engines automatically use "AND" between the words or phrases of a search, which means that the results will include any page that has all of the search terms. The "hurricane katrina " example above demonstrates this.
By using the "OR" capabilities of your search engine, you make the result set bigger. In this search are pages that have either the phrase "hurricane katrina" or the phrase "cleanup effort" in them, or maybe even both.
To exclude a certain word or phrase from your results, try using a "NOT." This search finds any page about hurricanes, except those pages that also include the word "katrina."
Boolean search logic is built in to almost any capable search tool you will encounter. The interface of every tool will be different, but the underlying concept will be similar.
5. Shortcuts. Each of the examples in the section above shows a search results window. At the top of that window in the search box is a phrase that will retrieve those results (for example, see the phrase search or the domain search). This means that you can choose how to do advanced searching: either through the advanced search window of your favorite search engine, or by learning the special terms that will retrieve the same results from the normal search window.
6. Cached pages. Both Google and Yahoo store the pages of the internet on their own servers temporarily. This is a great feature, for pages frequently disappear from the internet. Sometimes, using a cached copy, you can get them back. To access a cached page, do a regular search and look underneath each result for a link to the cached version. (Also, try the WayBack Machine.)
Alternatives
Search engines are very powerful, but they are not the only way to find information online. When looking for information, think of the most effective way to retrieve it. Journalists rarely have extra minutes to waste on fruitless online wandering. Here are some alternatives:
- Consider a subject directory such as directory.google.com or dir.yahoo.com. These tools organize information in linked hierarchies. These are good places to start when the topic is very broad and requires focus.
- Consider a meta-search engine such as surfwax.com or dogpile.com. These tools search other search engines. They are good places to start when the topic is very specific and information about it is scarce.