Search quick reference
Here's a quick overview of how to search. For more details, click
one of the User Guide topics in the left column.
- In the Search box, type one or
more phrases that describe what you're looking for, like good minestrone soup recipe. If you want to
search for two proper names, separate them with a comma, like this: Bill Gates, Microsoft.
- Choose where you want to search
from the list near the Search box. The choices are:
- The
Web: a comprehensive index of Web sites.
- Topics: a
hand-picked directory of quality Web sites.
- News: a
collection of recent news stories.
- Companies: brief
company biographies.
- Newsgroups: messages in Usenet
discussion areas.
- Click the Find button.
A new
page appears in your Web browser listing the first page of search
results. Click a result to view it. For more information, see Viewing
search results. If you don't like the results and you want to
improve them, see Refining
your search.
Search operators
For better
results, use the following search operators to specify required words,
excluded words, phrases, and so on. See the search
operators page for more detailed information. (Note: newsgroup
searches use different
operators.)
| Search type |
Example |
Finds Web pages with |
|
|
"computer
games" |
computer
next to the word games |
|
|
+computer
games |
computer
and maybe games |
|
+computer
+games |
both
computer and games within each page, although not
necessarily next to each other |
|
|
computer
games |
computer or
games, preferring pages with the phrase computer
games |
|
|
dogs -chihuahua
|
dogs but
not chihuahua |
|
|
Infoseek |
Infoseek
but not infoseek or INFOSEEK (Capitalize only when
it's appropriate.) |
|
George Bush, Texas
|
either proper
name, preferring pages with both names (Type a comma between proper
names.) |
|
|
Al Gore |
environment |
Al Gore
and, within these pages, the ones that contain environment
(Type Shift-backslash on most keyboards to type a |
symbol.) |
|
|
title:caramel |
caramel in
the Web page title |
|
|
+site:espn.com
+hockey |
pages on the
espn.com Web site that contain hockey |
|
|
url:travel
|
travel in
the Internet address (URL) of the Web page |
|
|
link:widgets.com |
links to
widgets.com |
Note: Instead of learning search
operators, you can also use the Advanced Search page to enter more focused
searches. To view the Advanced Search page, click the Search Options link
in the Search area.)
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