Search Strategies
A question most people wonder is whether they should
take advantage of a search engine's default searching mode or use Boolean Logic and other
search features to personally control the retrieval of documents. The answer depends
on the nature of the question and on the searcher's skills.
Nature of Question
It never hurts to try out a search in the engine's default mode. At the
most, you will lose a couple of minutes, and you may even find ideas to help formulate
your Boolean or other query. You should attempt a search in the default mode if the
question is rather general, and you think that there will be a lot of relevant material on
the Web, then you might want to let the search engine try to find the information.
Put in a list of terms describing your topic and see what results await you.
Searcher's Skills
You should know Boolean and other search features well enough to use it
effectively. The less these skills are present, the more the searcher will need to
rely on the search engine's default mode. Some search engines provide pull-down
windows or other methods to achieve the effects of Boolean, field searching, proximity,
etc.
Because there are so many variables, it is not easy
to provide clear, surefire rules for when to use the default mode and when to employ
Boolean and other search techniques. Instead you should:
- Be willing to try each approach (default relevance
ranking, Boolean, etc.)
- If one option doesn't work, try another.
- Know the advanced features that are available to you.
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