An Internet search service is no longer just a spring board for Internet surfing. Rather, as an essential infrastructure, its database needs to be complete and accurate to foster an efficient information exchange 5.3.3 Search Engine 1. Search Engine Math Forget power searching. Don't worry about learning to do a"Boolean"search. All most people need to know is a little basic"search engine math"in order to improve their results. Come learn how to easily add, subtract and multiply your way into better searches at your favorite search engine. The information below works for nearly all of the major search engines o e Before learning math, it's a helpful reminder that the more specific your search is, the more likely you will find what you want Don't be afraid to tell a search engine exactly what you are O Using The+ Symbol to Add you enter, not just some of them. The +symbol lets you do thus hds pages that have all the words Sometimes, you want to make sure that a search engine fir For example, imagine you want to find pages that have references to both President Clinton and Kenneth Starr on the same page. You could search this way +clinton +starr er. Only pages that contain both words would appear in your results. Here are some other amples windows +98+bugs That would find pages that have all three of the words on them, helpful if you wanted to narrow down a search to windows 98 bugs, rather than on windows 98 in general The symbol is especially helpful when you do a search and then find yourself overwhelmed with information. Imagine that you wanted to reserve a camping space in California's Yosemite National Park. You might start out simply searching like this Yosemite all the words you know must appear on the type of page you're looking for. tead, try searching for If so, chances are, you'll probably get too many off-target results. Ins +yosemite +camping reservations 2 Using The-Symbol to Subtract Sometimes, you want a search engine to find pages that have one word on them but not another word. The- symbol lets you do this For example, imagine you want information about President Clinton but don't want to be overwhelmed by pages relating to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. You could search this way clinton-lewinsky That tells the search engine to find pages that mention"clinton"and then to remove any of them that also mention"lewinsky In general, the- symbol is helpful for focusing results when you get too many that are unrelated to your topic. Simply begin subtracting terms you know are not of interest, and you should get better results 3 Using Quotation Marks To Multiply Now that you know how to add and subtract terms, we can move on to multiplication. As in normal math, multiplying terms through a"phrase search"can be a much better way to get the answers you are looking fo For example, remember above when we wanted pages about reserving a campsite in Yosemite? We entered all the terms like this +yosemite camping reservations That brings back pages that have all those words on them, but there's no guarantee that the words may necessarily be near each other. You could get a page that mentions Yosemite in the pening paragraph but then later talks about getting camping reservations in the Grand Canyon II the words you added together would appear on this page, but it still might not be what you Doing a phrase search avoids this problem. This is where you tell a search engine to give you pages where the terms appear in exactly the order you specify. You do this by putting quotationAn Internet search service is no longer just a spring board for Internet surfing. Rather, as an essential infrastructure, its database needs to be complete and accurate to foster an efficient information exchange. 5.3.3 Search Engine 1. Search Engine Math Forget power searching. Don't worry about learning to do a "Boolean" search. All most people need to know is a little basic "search engine math" in order to improve their results. Come learn how to easily add, subtract and multiply your way into better searches at your favorite search engine. The information below works for nearly all of the major search engines. Before learning math, it's a helpful reminder that the more specific your search is, the more likely you will find what you want. Don't be afraid to tell a search engine exactly what you are looking for. ① Using The + Symbol to Add Sometimes, you want to make sure that a search engine finds pages that have all the words you enter, not just some of them. The + symbol lets you do this. For example, imagine you want to find pages that have references to both President Clinton and Kenneth Starr on the same page. You could search this way: +clinton +starr Only pages that contain both words would appear in your results. Here are some other examples: +windows +98 +bugs That would find pages that have all three of the words on them, helpful if you wanted to narrow down a search to Windows 98 bugs, rather than on Windows 98 in general. The + symbol is especially helpful when you do a search and then find yourself overwhelmed with information. Imagine that you wanted to reserve a camping space in California's Yosemite National Park. You might start out simply searching like this: Yosemite If so, chances are, you'll probably get too many off-target results. Instead, try searching for all the words you know must appear on the type of page you're looking for: +yosemite +camping +reservations ② Using The - Symbol to Subtract Sometimes, you want a search engine to find pages that have one word on them but not another word. The - symbol lets you do this. For example, imagine you want information about President Clinton but don't want to be overwhelmed by pages relating to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. You could search this way: clinton –lewinsky That tells the search engine to find pages that mention "clinton" and then to remove any of them that also mention "lewinsky." In general, the - symbol is helpful for focusing results when you get too many that are unrelated to your topic. Simply begin subtracting terms you know are not of interest, and you should get better results. ③ Using Quotation Marks To Multiply Now that you know how to add and subtract terms, we can move on to multiplication. As in normal math, multiplying terms through a "phrase search" can be a much better way to get the answers you are looking for. For example, remember above when we wanted pages about reserving a campsite in Yosemite? We entered all the terms like this: +yosemite +camping +reservations That brings back pages that have all those words on them, but there's no guarantee that the words may necessarily be near each other. You could get a page that mentions Yosemite in the opening paragraph but then later talks about getting camping reservations in the Grand Canyon. All the words you added together would appear on this page, but it still might not be what you are looking for. Doing a phrase search avoids this problem. This is where you tell a search engine to give you pages where the terms appear in exactly the order you specify. You do this by putting quotation