Search Methods: Google and Academic Databases
Operators
Symbols to make your search more accurate, which can be used in most databases. Classic operators: and/or/or not
AND
AND brings back results that include both terms listed. However, Google reads "and" between all the words in a search string automatically, so you do not need to use it in a Google search.
OR
Expand your search to all of the results for your terms.
potato OR chip
NOT
- (minus) symbol: If you want to exclude a term, links, or sites to make your search results more specific to your needs.
potato NOT chip
Wildcards
While in many databases the asterisk allows for the searching of different spellings of a word (cat* = cat, cats, catch, etc), Google includes the different spellings automatically in a search, so the wildcard search here is for full words and terms rather than within a word.
* (asterisk)
Use as a place holder for an unknown word or term.
four *, seven years ago
Exact Term
A search method you can use almost anywhere!
Quotations
Put quotes around a multi-word term brings back the exact term in word order.
"potato chip"
Search Methods: Google Only
site:
Only search on certain sites. Use an asterisk to search for all sites with a particular domain.
potato site:nytimes = Posts from the NY Times that mention Afghanistan
potato –site:wikipedia.org = Results about potatoes but NOT any from wikipedia.org
potato site:*.gov = Results about potatoes from government sites/agencies
link:
Search for sites link to a certain URL
link: stevens.edu
info:
Get information about the url and related sites to your search. Can include cache information too.
potato info:fda.gov
filetype:
Look for a particular type of file like pdf, jpg, png, etc.
potato info:fda.gov filetype:pdf
Intitle:
Look for a word in the title.
intitle:potato
@ #
Social media searches.
@scwlibrary
#scwlibrarytrivia
You can combine any of these operators with a space to get results. Try:
potato intitle:chip filetype:pdf
"potato chip" intitle:bag filetype:pdf
