This week, we discuss more tips that can
get you amazingly better search result.
Remove Unwanted
pages using - symbol
We discussed forced search using + symbol
last week. The + symbol preceding a search word forces
search engine to look for only those pages that have
that search word. (e.g. +garments +buyer)
You can use the - symbol to do the exact
opposite - filter out unwanted pages. A - symbol preceding
a search word forces the search engine TO REMOVE all
pages having that particular search word.
For example, if you are looking for buyers
but not agents, the search expression may be as follows:
+buyer -agent
The - symbol is very helpful in weeding
out unwanted pages from search result and focus on
interest area only.
Some more examples of - symbol
SAARC -India (all countries in South
Asia except India)
windows +98 -3.1 (looking for pages on
Windows 98 only)
garments -fabrics (focussing on garments
only)
Join Multiple Words
using Quotation Marks
Well, after learning how to add and subtract
terms, the next logical step should be multiplication
!
As in mathematics, multiplying terms
through a "phrase search" can be a much better way
to get the answers you are looking for.
When you are looking for a concept made
up of more than one word or a phrase - searching for
the phrase provides much more focussed result than
sum total of individual words.
For example, if you are looking for Buying
Agents, you may search by any of the following ways:
1. +buying +agent
2. +'buying agent'
The search result will be vastly different
for phrase search. We actually searched two top Search
engines and see the difference in result below:
Search Expression: +buying +agent
AltaVista : 4,076,558 pages
Google : 8,06,000 pages
Search Expression: 'buying agent'
(exact phrase in advanced search)
AltaVista : 4613 pages
Google : 18000 pages
So if you know exactly what you want
- use phrase search. There is no better alternative.
