All Internet search tools work in pretty much the same way. Periodically, they comb the Internet looking for new information sources. When a new resource is located, it is cataloged or indexed, along with its URL or Internet web address.
Some search tools provide you with a form such as the one below from Yahoo where you can enter the criteria for your search. Others provide their index as a directory of categories you can search through.
Use Boolean Logic to Find What you Want Faster
Don't let the term scare you- Boolean is just a term for a smart way of performing searches when using multiple words as your criteria. Boolean logic employs three key words: AND, OR and NOT.
Boolean logic offers three possibilities in Web searching:
- Find this term and that term.
- Find this term or that term
- Find this term but not that term
Here's an example...
You are looking for a recipe for apple pie, and you enter apple by itself as your search criteria. You would get back literally hundreds of thousands of listings about apples (the edible variety), Apple Computer (the company), Steve Jobs, John Sculley and too many others to list. But really all you wanted was a listing of apple pie recipes. You could structure your query (another word for search criteria) like this:
apple AND pie This would return only those sites that have the words apple AND pie in them. But it still could return web sites discussing Apple Computer (Headline: Apple Computer Employee Win Pie Eating Contest)
To eliminate any reference to computer, write the query like this:
apple AND pie AND NOT computer This will return only sites discussing apple pies. Be specific as possible when performing your search. The more information that you give the search engine, the more likely you will get the information you are looking for.
For more specific information check out the HELP section for syntaxes for each search engine. For Yahoo the web addresses are:
