Whats the best way to search the Internet

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Search Strategies
Whats the best way to search the Internet?
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Background Information

• Look up your general topic in a good
  encyclopedia.
  
• Create a list of words and phrases to use in a
  computer search.

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Boolean Logic

• Use this when you have more than one key word.
• Boolean logic uses three key operators. Each
  will provide different results and amounts of
  information.
  
• AND
• NOT
• OR

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Example Boolean Search
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Vanilla OR chocolate Or strawberry.
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Grouping together all the categories with an OR
would broaden the set.

Vanilla AND chocolate AND strawberry.
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(Vanilla OR strawberry) NOT chocolate.
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Words can be linked together into phrases by
using quotation marks. The search engine will
look for these words in that exact order, next to
one another. Example "global warming"
Other Search Strategies
Phrase Searching
Words can be linked together into phrases by
using quotation marks. The search engine will
look for these words in that exact order, next to
one another.
Example "global warming"
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Other Search Strategies

• Use the (plus) sign for words you want to
  include in the search.
  
• Use the (minus) sign for words you dont want
  included.
  
• Put a space before the sign, but not between the
  word that follows.

Examples ecology mountains American Pie
-movie
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Words can be linked together into phrases by
using quotation marks. The search engine will
look for these words in that exact order, next to
one another. Example "global warming"
Other Search Strategies
Place either or after the root of a word to
have the search include all terms which begin
with the root, but have any number of alternate
endings.
Example histor Search will include terms such
as history, historical, histories.
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Detailed Information on Searching the Internet
Ithaca College Library - Resources and Methods of
Research University at Albany Libraries - Boolean
Searching on the Internet MCPS - Comparison of S
earch Engines, and Definitions of Search Options
Thanks to the Ithaca College Library for the Venn
diagram images.