Basic Search Features
Advanced Search Features
Quick Tips
Basic Search Features
To search for a word, simply type your keyword(s) in the search box and click
the "Search" button, or use one of the following symbols with your
keyword(s). For a better search results use lowercase letters:
Symbols |
Description |
|
Leaving a space between the words in your search will find
documents that contain any of the words or all words.
Example: federal government finds documents with federal, federal government,
or government. |
+ |
To ensure a word is always included in your search results
place a plus (+) symbol before the word.
Example: federal +government finds documents that contain both words (federal
government) or the word (government). |
- |
To ensure a word is always excluded place a minus (-) symbol
in front.
Example: federal -government finds documents that contain the word (federal)
but do not contain the word (government). |
* |
Expand your search using wildcards (*).
Example: big* finds documents containing the words (big, bigger,
biggest, ...etc.). |
" " |
Phrases should be placed in "double quotes".
Example: "federal government" finds documents containing the
two words (federal government) right next to each other. |
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Advanced Search Features
For advanced search use one of the following keywords:
Keyword |
Description |
anchor:text |
Finds pages that contain the specified word in the text of
a hyperlink. Use anchor:employment to find pages with the word (employment)
in a link. |
link:URLtext
|
Finds pages that contain a specific link. Use link:scc.ca
to find all pages linking to scc.ca (Standards Council of Canada). |
text:text |
Finds pages that contain the specified text in any part of
the page other than an image tag, link, or URL. Use text:seminar
to find all pages with the word (seminar) in them. |
title:text |
Finds pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the
page title (which appears in the title bar of most browsers). The search
title:institute would find pages with (institute) as part of the
title. |
url:text |
Finds pages with a specific word or phrase in the URL. Use
url:e-purchasing to find all pages on all servers that have the word
(e-purchasing) anywhere in the host name, path, or filename. |
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Quick Tips
Keywords |
Description |
federal government |
Finds documents that contain either federal or government
or any capitalized variant (federal, federal government, government). AltaVista ranks
the results to show first the documents containing both words, close together,
and near the top of the document. |
federal +government |
Finds documents that contain both words (federal government) or
the word (government), but not the word (federal) without the word (government)
since all pages must have the word (government) in them. |
federal+government |
Finds only documents that contain both words. Be sure
there is no space between the plus sign and the word that follows. |
+federal government |
All documents found must contain (federal) or any capitalized
variant. Documents that contain (government) are ranked higher in the list than
documents that do not contain (government). |
"federal government" |
Finds documents that have the two words found right next to
each other. Placing quotation marks around any series of words turns
them into a phrase and tells AltaVista search engine that you are only interested
in documents that have the words in this specific order. |
+"federal government" -bread |
Finds documents that contain the words (federal government) but
do not contain the word (bread). |
+ federal +bu* |
Finds documents that contain (federal) and any word starting
with (bu) such as (government, bun, ...etc.).
Use an asterisk when you're not sure how a word is spelled or to
find variations of the word. Try (big*) to find (big, bigger, biggest, ...etc.).
Use an asterisk at the end or in the middle of words. Do not use an asterisk
at the beginning of a word. |
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