Search Engines
Search Tips Electronic Reference Shelf
While this page does no more than assemble a handful of available utilities (all of which are free, by the way), it also serves as a window on the expanding world of information which today lies at our finger tips.1. Site Search: To perform a search of text that appears anywhere on our site, type the word(s) or phrase you are looking for into the search box. The more precise you are, the more targeted will be your results. To get more specific search results on all of these sites, try using the following Search Tips .
2. Web Search: And if that doesn't give satisfaction, try here to search the whole Web for your term. Click here for Northern Light, our preferred business search engine.
And if that doesn't do it, try any of the following: AltaVista, Excite, Google, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, Deja, Yahoo!, Amazon Open Directory, or eGroups
3. Encyclopaedia Search: This search will take you to the Encyclopaedia Britannica for a first reference check, and then beyond as you may require.
4. @Forum Search: The @Forum has its own Search Engine, which can identify entries that appear anywhere on the Forum site via names, words and strings.
Search TipsCheck spelling
Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. The
search engine will attempt to find words that sound similar
your search terms, but it is always best to try to spell
the search terms correctly.
Use multiple words
Use multiple words when performing your search. The search
results will return more refined results from several words
than from a single word. (Keep in
mind, relevant results are returned even if they don't contain
all query terms.)
Use similar words
The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant
results you will get back.
Use appropriate capitalization
Capitalize proper nouns. Lowercase words will match any case.
For example, typing "search" will return
all documents containing the words "search, Search,"
and "SEARCH". However, typing
"Search" will only search for pages
where the word appears in this exact form.
Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to find words which must appear adjacent
to each other, for example, "our pledge to you".
Otherwise, the search results will include all documents that contain the word
"our", "pledge", "to", and the word "you",
but not necessarily in that order. The words may appear anywhere, and
in any order, within the document.
Use plus (+) or minus (-)
Use a plus sign when your search term or phrase must appear
in the search results. Use a minus sign to indicate undesirable
term(s). The plus sign tells the search engine that a certain word
or phrase is required in the search results, and a minus sign
indicates that a word or phrase must be absent in the search
results.
Note: A phrase must be contained within quotation marks. Leave
no spaces between the plus or minus sign and the term.
Use field searches
Field searches allow you to create specific for words that
appear in a specific part of a document. A field search
can be performed on body text (body:), title text (title:),
alt text (alt:), meta description (desc:), meta key words
(keys:) or URL (url:). The field name should be in lowercase
and immediately followed by a colon. There should be no spaces
between the colon and the search term.
Note: The field searches can only be followed by a word or
phrase. Phrases must be contained within quotation
marks.
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Updated 3 January 1999