Search Engine Specifications

• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results -
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results -
  Attach a - in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• If you are searching a phrase with stop words (such as: and, or, the, a) you need to use "+" even within quotation marks.
• The "and" operator is always assumed in a Google search.
• The "or" operator is not a valid term in Google, use a - to exclude terms - (-like -this)
• The "" operator. While Google automatically prefers pages where the query terms are found in close proximity, however you can enclose words in double-quotes ("like this") to force the words to appear together in all returned documents.
• The results can also be used for further exploration of the web. Click on the bar graph at the beginning of the result, and see what pages link to this page.
• Click on the "cached" link, and see what the page looked like when we indexed it. Has the page changed so much it doesn't hold the information you need anymore? Perhaps the version in the cache will be more helpful.
• The "I feel lucky" button automatically takes you to the first web page returned for your query.
  
  This information about Google was taken from the Google Help Pages.

• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results -
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results -
  Attach a - in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase, otherwise Yahoo will search for the words individually. Ex: "President Bill Clinton" in quotes will search for material about the President, but without quotes, any page with the words President Bill and/or Clinton will be retrieved.
• Attaching one the following operators to the front of a search word will restrict the search to a certain document sections.
• t: - will restrict searches to document titles
• u: - will restrict searches to document URLs
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase
• Wildcard Matching (*)
  Attaching a * to a word and partial matches will be retrieved. Ex: Islam* will retrieve Islamic and Islam.
• Combining the Syntax
  You may combine any of the query syntax as long as the syntax is combined in the proper order. The proper order for using the syntax is the same order that the operators are listed on the Yahoo Help Page. That is, +, -, t:, u:, "" and lastly *.
• Time Restrictions
  You can restrict your search to documents that are more recent than a certain date. There is no search query syntax available for restricting by time. This feature can only be accessed from the Search Options Page.
• Displaying Results
  You can customize the number of search results displayed on all result pages following the summary page (the layout of the summary page is fixed). There is no search query syntax option available for customizing the number of displayed results. This feature can only be accessed from the Search Options Page.
  
  This information about Yahoo! was taken from the Yahoo Help Pages.

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• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results -
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results - Attach a - in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase, otherwise HotBot will search for the words individually. Ex: "President Bill Clinton" in quotes will search for material about the President, but without quotes, any page with the words President Bill and/or Clinton will be retrieved
• Boolean operators
  Boolean operators allow you to enter "advanced" searches directly as text, instead of using the Modify panel. Remember: to use any Boolean operators, you must first select "Boolean Search" from the "all the words" menu.
• Meta words
  "Meta words are short cuts that allow experienced searchers to use HotBot's non-text search features from the main text box. A Meta word is a keyword:value pair, separated by a colon (with no spaces). " For the complete list of Meta Words go to the Hotbot Advanced Searching Page.
  
  This information was taken from the HotBot Help Pages.

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• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results
  Attach a -in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase, otherwise Alta Vista will search for the words individually. Ex: "President Bill Clinton" in quotes will search for material about the President, but without quotes, any page with the words President Bill and/or Clinton will be retrieved.
• Use lowercase text in your searches
  When you use lowercase text, the search service finds both upper and lowercase results. When you use upper case text, the search service finds only upper case.
• Wildcard Matching (*)
  Attaching a * to a word and partial matches will be retrieved. Ex: Islam* will retrieve Islamic and Islam.
• To learn about searching more than just text, visit these Help Pages.

This information was taken from the Alta Vista Help Pages.

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• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results -
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results -
  Attach a - in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase, otherwise Excite will search for the words individually. Ex: "President Bill Clinton" in quotes will search for material about the President, but without quotes, any page with the words President Bill and/or Clinton will be retrieved.
• Boolean Operators
  Allowing you to search for documents that contain exactly the words you are looking for. Boolean operators include AND, AND NOT, OR, and parentheses ( ). These operators must appear in ALL CAPS, with a space on each side in order to work.
• Try "More Like This":
  If you find that one of the Web results better describes what you are searching for, click on "More Like This" next to the title.
  
  This information was taken from the Excite Help Pages.

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• Specify Words that Must Appear in the Results -
  Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents.
• Specify Words that Should Not Appear in the Results -
  Attach a -in front of words that must not appear in result documents.
• Use double quotes " " around words that are part of a phrase, otherwise Northern Lights will search for the words individually. Ex: "President Bill Clinton" in quotes will search for material about the President, but without quotes, any page with the words President Bill and/or Clinton will be retrieved.
• Two truncation symbols (wildcards)
  "You must have at least four non-wildcard characters in a word before you introduce a wildcard.
• The * (asterisk) can be used to replace multiple characters.
• The % (percent) symbol is used to replace only one character.
  Note that Northern Light automatically stems most common plural and singular forms of words.
• Fielded Searching: Northern Light enables searching within fields (or indices) to help return more specific results. Fielded searches include:
• URL: searches for a URL or partial URL
• TITLE: searches for a document title or partial title PUB: searches for Special Collection documents by journal title
• TEXT: searches within the text of the document or website
  
  This information was taken from the Northern Lights Help Page
  

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