To begin: Drag a green keyword piece from the puzzle menu to the puzzle board.
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- Entering a word will add a keyword to the search
- Entering several words will add a keyphrase to the search
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- And is used to link keywords
- Example: cat AND mouse AND cheese
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- NOT is used to indicate which results you DON'T want in your search
- You must use NOT next to each keyword you don't want included
- Example: Dolphins NOT fish NOT marine NOT mammal
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- OR is used to indicate several potential keyword combinations you want
- You must use OR next to each keyword combination you want
- Example: food AND nutrition AND dog OR cat OR mouse
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- Drag and drop items from the board to the trashcan to remove them from your search
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Refine your search by dragging AND, OR or NOT pieces to the puzzle. You can completely clear the search by clicking on the "X" on the right side of the board, or delete specific pieces by dragging them to the bucket icon.
Search for web results, news results or image results by selecting the appropraite icon from the puzzle menu.
Boolean: And, If, Or, Keywords and Phrases
Normally, keyword searches on the web return very broad results. For instance, a search for "Dolphins" retrieves web pages about the American football team, as well as the marine mammal. Search experts use Boolean operators help limit search results.
- The Dolphins are a football team in the United States. Dolphins are also marine mammals. A search for "Dolphins" returns web pages about the football team and about fish. Keywords without used without limitation return all results that contain that word, regardless of topic.
- Searching for “Dolphins NOT Football” returns results more closely related to the marine mammal. Using NOT can help you limit your results to one topic.
- Searching for “Dolphins AND Football” returns results more closely related to the American football team. Using AND can also help you return results more relevant to your topic.
- Searching for “Dolphins OR Football” returns results related to either the Fish, the Football team, OR Football (American or European). Using OR can help you widen your search to related subjects.
- Searching for the phrase “Dolphins Football” finds only webpages that literally contain the text “Dolphins Football”. Using a phrase search can help you find exact references to your subject.
