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Help on Search
This page provides basic information about the Canada Site's search engine and how to use it to its fullest potential.
Use the Search Engine Feedback Form to submit an enquiry, comment or suggestion on the Canada Site's search engine.
The Basics
- Features for typical searches
- Simple tips for more exact searches
- What is the Bilingual Query Module?
- Why use the Bilingual Query Module?
- What if the Bilingual Query Module does not find any equivalents for your search terms?
- Using multinational characters
- What should I do if I click on a title and the page returns as not found?
- What is TERMIUM®?
- What is an Index?
- What is a Word?
- What is a Phrase?
The search engine helps you find documents on Government of Canada Web sites. You tell the search engine what you are looking for by typing in keywords, or phrases in the search box. The search engine responds by giving you a list of all the Web pages in the index relating to your choices. The most relevant content will appear at the top of the results page.
How to Use:
- Type your keywords in the search box.
- Press the Search button to start your search.
Example:
- Type "canada passport information" in the search box.
- Press the Search button or press the Enter key.
- The results page will appear displaying pages with passport information available on Government of Canada Web sites.
Tip: Although the number of results may be large, the most relevant content will appear at the top of the result pages.
The search engine searches more than just text. Here are all of the other ways you can search on the net:
| Keyword | Function |
|---|---|
| anchor:text | Finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the text of a hyperlink.
|
| applet:class |
Finds pages that contain a specified Java applet.
|
| text:text |
Finds pages that contain the specified text in any part of the page other than an image tag, link, or URL.
|
| title:text |
Finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the page title. ( The page title appears in the title bar of most browsers).
|
| url:text |
Finds pages with a specific word or phrase in the URL.
|
Simple Tips for More Exact Searches
Viewing your search results in the language you have selected:
Using the Language drop-down menu in the search box allows you to find all documents on a chosen topic, written in a specific language. This type of search excludes other Government of Canada Web pages written in other languages so that you can make your search more specific.
Example:
If you select French from the drop-down menu when searching for passport, your results page will include French language Web pages with the word passport.
Using lowercase text in your searches.
When you use lowercase text the search engine finds both upper and lowercase results. When you use upper case text the search engine will only find results written in upper case.
Example:
When you search for ottawa, you'll find Ottawa, ottawa, and OTTAWA in your result pages. However, when you search for Ottawa, you'll only see Ottawa in the result pages.
Including or excluding words:
To ensure that a specific word is always included in your search topic, place the plus (+) symbol before the key word in the search box. To ensure that a specific word is always excluded from your search topic, place an exclamation point (!) sign before the keyword in the search box.
Example:
To find rail and ship transportation excluding air in Canada, try rails +ship +canadian !air.
Expand your search using wildcards (*):
By typing an * at the end of a keyword, you can search for the word with multiple endings.
Example:
Try tax*, to find taxes, taxable and taxation.
What is the Bilingual Query Module?
The Bilingual Query Module is a tool that helps users perform searches. The Module gives you access to the terms and synonyms in TERMIUM®, the Government of Canada linguistic data bank, providing you with English and French search equivalents.
Why use the Bilingual Query Module?
With this tool, you can search for several related terms in both official languages simultaneously, by entering a single query. You can then retrieve all the corresponding documents, whether they are written in English or in French.
What if the Bilingual Query Module does not find any equivalents for your search terms?
Spelling and the use of the plural form can significantly influence the outcome of your search. Modifying your search terms could yield different results.
Using the singular rather than the plural form, eliminating or adding hyphens, and using the Canadian (British) or the American spelling could influence your search results.
Multinational Characters
You can search for words with accents and other diacritic marks. If you do not type letters with accents or diacritic marks, the search engine will find all related words and not only one word you are seeking.
Example:
If you type élève, the query will only find élève.
If you type eleve, the query will find élevé, élève, etc.
If you type œuvre, the query will only find œuvre.
If you type oeuvre, the query will find oeuvre, œuvre, Oeuvre and Œuvre.
What should I do if I click on a title and the page returns as not found?
If you click on a Web title and are notified that the Web page cannot be found, the Webmaster may have deleted the page after the Alta Vista robot program last visited the site. Try copying the first part of the URL in the listing and pasting it into your browser's location box. You may be able to find useful information from the site's home page.
What is TERMIUM®?
TERMIUM® is the Government of Canada linguistic data bank, consisting of over three million terms and names with definitions, contexts, examples of usage and observations. Produced by the Translation Bureau, TERMIUM® contains terms in nearly all fields of knowledge, including agriculture, transportation and health, with special emphasis on informatics, business, administration, science and technology.
When you use the Bilingual Query Module, TERMIUM® gives you all the equivalents, synonyms and abbreviations in the data bank, regardless of the subject field. Consequently, some terms might surprise you since you have none of the definitions, contexts, examples of usage and observations contained in TERMIUM®. If you consult TERMIUM® you will have access to all this additional information.
What is an Index?
The Canada Site Index is a large, organized and continuously growing collection of Web pages and discussion group pages from Government of Canada Web Sites. The Index expands everyday as new Government of Canada Web pages are added. We also have technology that crawls the Web looking for links to new Government of Canada Web pages. When you use our search engine, you search the entire collection using keywords or phrases.
What is a Word?
When searching, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers. The search engine needs to know how to separate words and numbers to find exactly what you want on the Internet. You can separate words using spacing and tabs.
What is a Phrase?
You can link words and numbers together into phrases if you want specific words or numbers to appear together in your result pages. If you want to find an exact phrase, use double quotation marks (") around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.
Example:
To find youth employment strategy, type "youth employment strategy" in the search box.
You can also create phrases using punctuation or special characters such as dashes, underscore lines, commas, slashes, or dots.
Example:
Try searching for 1 800 622-6232 instead of 1-800-622-6232. The dashes link the numbers together as a phrase.