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IMRC - Resource Discovery Sub-group: GoC Search Engine - Tips and Tricks Chief Information Officer Branch
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Overview Documents Links GOL MWG

Please direct comments to:
Bruce Jackson
(bruce.jackson@pwgsc.gc.ca)

How can I make my search more specific?
What are some advanced search features?
How do I use Boolean Operators?
Where do I find help on searching?

Q: How can I make my search more specific?

It is important to realize that the number of results returned from a specific query is not a main concern. A large number of results are not necessarily bad; instead concentrate on the relevance of the first 20 returns. Consider the following tips when performing a search:

  • Using several words in a search query ensures that you will receive more relevant results. Although the number of returns will be large, the most relevant returns will appear at the top.
  • When searching with phrases instead of single words, placing the phrase in "double quotes" will find documents containing that exact phrase. For example, entering "AltaVista search engine 3.0" in the search box will return documents with this exact phrase.
  • Use lowercase text. Lowercase text will return results containing both uppercase and lowercase. When using uppercase, only uppercase results are returned. For example, when searching for "Ottawa", only results with the word "Ottawa" (with capital O) will be found. Searching for "ottawa" (with lower case o) returns results containing "Ottawa", "Ottawa" and "OTTAWA".
  • Select the desired language from the drop-down list to receive results only in the specified language.
  • Understand the difference between Simple and Advanced Searches and choose the appropriate option for your search.

Use Simple search for general searches matching search term(s) to phrases within the documents. Typical searches include the following features: include (+), exclude (-), anchor:, text:, title: and url:.

Use Advanced search for specific searches. Advanced search includes more powerful search features. All the features available in a simple search are also available in advanced searches with the exception of includes (+) and excludes (-). Advanced search features also include Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT), searches by date range and searches ranked using specified words.

  • To ensure that a word is always included, place a "+" (plus) symbol before the word. To ensure that a word is always excluded place a "-"(minus) symbol before the word. For example, to find rail and ship transportation, excluding air in Canada use: rail +ship +canadian -air
  • Use wildcards while searching. This enables you to search words with multiple endings. For example, searching for "tax*" will return tax, taxes, taxation, taxable and so on.

Top of Page Q: What are some advanced search features?

There are many ways to produce more exact search results. Try using the following special tags within a search query.

Keyword Function Example
anchor:text Finds documents containing the specified word within the text of a hyperlink. Using "anchor:pwgsc" returns sites that link to PWGSC pages.
domain:domainname Finds documents within the specified domain. Using "domain:gc.ca" returns government sites.
host:hostname Find documents from a specific host. Using "host:www.canada.gc.ca" returns pages within www.canada.gc.ca.
image:filename Finds documents containing an image with the specified filename. Using "image:canada" returns sites with images with the word "canada" in their filename.
link:URLtext Finds documents with a link to a page with the specified URL text. Using "link:www.cic.gc.ca" returns all pages that link to www.cic.gc.ca.
text:text Finds documents containing the specified text other than an image tag, link or URL. Using "text:jobs" returns all pages that contain the word job.
title:text  Finds documents containing the specified word or phrase within the title. Using "title:job" returns all pages that have the word job in the title.
url:text   Finds documents containing the specified word or phrase within the URL. Using "url:pch.gc.ca" returns all pages that have pch.gc.ca in the URL.
Metadata
dctitle:
dccreator:
dcsubject:
dcdatemodified:
dclanguage:
dccontributor:
dcsource:
dcdescription:		 Use metatags to search for sites with specific metafields. They are used in the same manner as seen above. Using "dccreator:John Smith" finds all pages that contain John Smith as the listed author.

Top of Page Q: How do I use Boolean Operators?

AltaVista's advanced search allows the use of Boolean operators within a query. The table below outlines the Boolean operators.        

Boolean Operator

Function

Example
AND Finds documents containing all the specified words. A search on "canada AND province" finds pages containing both words.
OR Finds pages containing at least one of the given words. A search on "canada OR province" finds pages containing either "canada" or "province".
AND NOT Excludes documents containing the specified word. A search on "canada AND NOT province" finds pages that contain the word "canada" but not containing the word "province".
NEAR Finds documents containing both specified words within 10 words of each other. A search on "canada NEAR province" finds documents with the words "canada" and "province" near each other within the document.  

When using more complicated Boolean expressions, use parentheses to group sections together. For example, using the search criteria "(canada AND province) OR (ontario)" finds documents containing either the words "canada" and "province", or the word "ontario" or both.

Top of Page Q: Where do I find help on searching?

To find help for Simple Searches visit the following URLs:

To find help for Advanced Searches visit the following URLs:

Return to the Overview of the Resource Discovery Sub-group
Return to the main page of the GOL Metadata Working Group
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Date published: 2003-06-05
Last updated: 2003-05-22
Date reviewed: 2003-11-13
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Top of Page		 Important Notices