General Notes:
| Site Search Syntax | |
| Syntax | Description of Syntax Usage |
|
If no special operator is used (as shown below), you are sending the most basic query. This query will match all documents that contain any of the words. Example:
search engine secrets will return results for all pages that contain any of these words (wildcards are also acceptable - see below). |
|
| + |
Put a plus sign (+) in front of a word that must be found in the documents. Example:
+search +engine +secrets will return results for all documents that contain all words (wildcards are also acceptable - see below). |
| - |
Put a minus sign (-) in front of words that you want to reject. For example, the query:
+search +engine -secrets will return results for all documents that contain search and engine, but will reject the document if secrets was found (wildcards are also acceptable - see below). |
| " |
Use double quotation marks (") for words that must appear together. Multiple phrases may be searched for in the same query. For example, the query:
+"search engine" +"easy submit" will match documents containing both phrases somewhere within the document. |
| * |
Put an asterisk (*) anywhere you wish to use wildcards. This wildcard will help match plurals and other word combinations. Your search term using wildcards must contain at least 4 characters or your term will be ignored.
The asterisk is a powerful search tool, but it does have some limitations. It cannot span words - that is, the query "search*engine*secrets" would not match "search engine secrets". The asterisk can represent at most four characters. For example: sec* this term will be ignored because it does not contain at least 4 characters. sec*t will match documents that contain: secret, sect, secant and probably a few others, but will not match the plural secrets. sec*t* will match documents that contain: secret, secrets, secretion, sect, secant and probably a few other words you haven't thought of. |
1) Experiment with your search query. Try different approaches. This will help you get exactly the results you want.
2) Be as descriptive as possible in your query -- the more required words used the more exact your search results will be.
3) Check your spelling -- even a small error will affect your search results.
To find pages most relevant to what you are looking for, construct your query as precisely as possible. You might not find exactly what you want if your search is too general.