ONLINE TUTORIALS

Internet III

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Search Strategies

Keyword Searching

Boolean Searching

Phrase Searching

Field Searching

Date Searching

Truncation Operators or Wildcards

Proximity Operators

Name Searching

Punctuation and Capitalization

Search Tips

Evaluating Search Engines

Popular Search Engines

The "Invisible" or "Deep" Web

Information that can be found on the "Invisible" or "Deep" Web

Finish

Keyword Searching

Before beginning a search, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Who/What?
  2. Where?
  3. When?
  4. How?
  5. Why?

All of these five categories will not always apply to a given query, but they are useful to keep in mind when analyzing the major components of a search.

All search engines ignore "stoplist" words because they have minimal informational value and are found so commonly in all language.  
Examples of these words include the, of, a, in, as, if, not, why, never, before, is, it, about, and.

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