Search Query Tips |
By default, most popular search engines try to locate pages which have exact matches for all of the words entered in your search query. If that fails, they then try to locate pages which contain any of the words in your search query.
There are several standard methods which you can use to modify this default search engine behavior.
- Phrase Search – To match an exact phrase, use quotes around
the phrase, for example "business news".
- + and - Qualifiers – If you prepend a word with +, that
word must be on the page. If you prepend a word with -, that
word must not be on the page, for example +always -never.
- * Wildcard – If a query word ends with *, all words on a
page which start the same way as that query word will match, for example
gift*.
- ? Wildcard – If a query word contains ?, any character
will match that position, for example b?g.
- Boolean Search – You can use the boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT in your search, for example contact AND us or about AND us. These operators must be capitalized, as shown.