Enter a keyword into the field below to perform a search. Keyword can contain specific words or
combinations of words. Scroll down for a brief explanation of the query language.
Search Tips:
Choosing Keywords
For best results, it's important to choose your keywords wisely. Keep these
tips in mind:
- Try the obvious first. If you're looking for information on Picasso, enter
"Picasso" rather than "painters."
- Use words likely to appear on a site with the information you want.
"Luxury hotel Dubuque" gets better results than "really nice
places to spend the night in Dubuque."
- Make keywords as specific as possible. "Antique lead soldiers"
gets more relevant results than "old metal toys."
Automatic "and" Queries
By default, Google only returns pages that include all of your search terms.
There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the
order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a
search further, just include more terms.
Automatic Exclusion of Common Words
Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and
"how," as well as certain single digits and single letters, because
they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. Google will
indicate if a common word has been excluded by displaying details on the results
page below the search box.
If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can
include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a
space before the "+" sign.)
Another method for doing this is conducting a phrase search, which simply
means putting quotation marks around two or more words. Common words in a phrase
search (e.g., "where are you") are included in the search.
Capitalization
Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of
how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for
"george washington", "George Washington", and "gEoRgE
wAsHiNgToN" will all return the same results.
Word Variations (Stemming)
To provide the most accurate results, Google does not use
"stemming" or support "wildcard" searches. In other words,
Google searches for exactly the words that you enter in the search box.
Searching for "book" or "book*" will not yield
"books" or "bookstore." If in doubt, try both forms:
"airline" and "airlines," for instance.
Date last revised: June 5, 2009
|
