Strategic searching
Searching strategies often require more than just one keyword
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 3/1/1998
Do your searching well, and you are bound to reap the benefits. Do your searching poorly, and at best, you end up scrolling through hundreds of Web sites in search of a diamond in the rough.So, before you attempt your next search, spend some time deciding what you want from the Web. Think backwards. Think how a Webmaster who created a page would think -- what key words would a Webmaster use to describe the site? For example, if you are searching for "contractors supplies," those two words simply being plural will garner different results than the singular, "contractor supply."
Four words -- AND, OR, NOT and NEAR -- when used correctly, and often together, will help in your search quests. These words find Web sites which are relevant. They help search engines filter. Would you rather look at a dozen relevant sites or a mish-mash listing of a hundred irrelevant ones? The terms -- part of a century-old system called Boolean logic -- act as extremely effective filters for pulling information you need off the Web in a sensible, logical manner.
Most of today's search engines, (I reported on a few of the better ones last month), support some form of Boolean query, but not all search engines recognize all of these words. When in doubt, try it out. Here are the following words to add to your searching:
* AND (+) The AND makes sure all the terms you request appear on a site. If you type industrial AND construction distributor, your search will return pages about industrial AND construction distributors -- a lot more specific than just the broad search term construction, which reveals thousands of pages that pertain to construction (including news, listings, products). Lycos, while recognizing the word AND, also uses the plus sign (+) for its "requiring words." Use the plus sign (+) before a word that you want to include, like construction +distributor. Some sites, however, using no connector, will assume the word or, some will assume and.
* OR Use OR to return pages that contain either of two terms. For example, MRO OR OEM will find pages that mention either or both words.
* NOT (-) Use NOT to exclude certain words from your searches. This is a great tip to narrow your search, especially if using broad key words. Lycos uses the minus (-) command in front of any word to screen out that word. If you wanted to find information on contractors other than those related to government, type in contractors NOT government or contractors -government.
* NEAR This term finds words located within a certain number of characters of each other. Be careful though, because not every search site uses NEAR in this manner, and some don't recognize it at all. For example, AltaVista uses it to find words within ten characters of each other, while Web Crawler lets you specify the number of characters.
* Parentheses and Quotation Marks Organize your searches even further by using parentheses and quotes. OEM NOT (MRO AND construction) will still find OEM-related sites, but avoid pages with MRO and construction information. You may also use quotes (" ") if you are looking for a specific phrase or a person's full name. This tells the search engine to match your word pattern exactly. For example: "MRO supplies" will find pages only where the exact phrase is mentioned.
Note that not all search engines support Boolean use. Those that don't will automatically remove them.
Every word on every page and HTML code on every site on the entire Web is a lot of information for a search engine to absorb, much less sift through or filter. You can improve your search results dramatically by being focused and specific in your choice of key words and using the Boolean terminology of AND, NOT, OR and NEAR. Finally, a few well-chosen words often make the difference between a list of interesting and applicable Web sites and a haphazard listing of hundreds of sites that you don't need.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
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