Quick Reference Guide to Search Engine Syntax
This document provides a quick reference guide to the search engines used to query major Internet subject databases and general search engine databases. For more information about these services, see
  • Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques
    • Sites covered in this document:

    Main screen
    Boolean Logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to phrase searching if more than one term is entered and the terms are found in the Alta Vista phrase dictionary; otherwise, the default logic is OR
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    • Full case sensitivity supported
    Fields
    • Page retrieval by language
    • Images, audio, video
    • Supported fields:
      • Anchor, e.g., anchor:White-House
      • Applet, e.g., applet:NervousText
      • Domain, e.g., domain:nz
      • Host, e.g., host:ibm.com
      • Image, e.g., image:clinton.jpg
      • Link, e.g., link:www.microsoft.com
      • Text, e.g., text:fungicide
      • Title, e.g., title:"New York Times"
      • URL, e.g., url:holocaust
    Phrases
    • Defaults to phrase searching automatically if search terms are found in its phrase dictionary
    • Can also use quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    Truncation
    • Mandatory truncation
    • Truncation character: *
    • Internal truncation supported, e.g., colo*r
    Other Images, audio and video are search options

    Advanced search

    All the features above with the following additions
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean AND, OR, AND NOT, NEAR [terms within 10 words of each other] with parentheses. e.g., behavior and (cats or felines)
    Fields
    • Date

    Power Search

    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    Boolean Logic
    • The search should include any of the words (Boolean OR)
    • The search should include all of the words (Boolean AND)
    • The search should include Boolean (for use of Boolean operators)

     
    Fields
    • Date
    • Language
    • Location by URL, domain, region
    • Title
    • Text
    • Links to URL
    Phrases
    • The search should include exact phrase
    Truncation
    • None

    To search (information pages of the guides only), click on Search/Browse

    Boolean Logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to Boolean AND unless one of the terms is truncated, in which case the default is OR
    • Full Boolean logic: Boolean OR, AND with parentheses, e.g.,
      • behavior and (cats or felines)
    • NOT operator is not supported
    Case sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • None
    Phrases
    • None
    Truncation
    • Mandatory truncation
    • Truncation character: *

    Main screen
    Boolean logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to Boolean OR
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    • Full Boolean logic: Boolean AND, OR, AND NOT with parentheses, e.g., behavior AND (cats OR felines). Boolean operators must be in CAPS.
    Case sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • None
    Phrases
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    Truncation
    • Once list of hits is returned, option to View by URL

    Advanced search
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology:
      • Must Have (Boolean AND)
      • Good to have (Boolean OR)
      • Must Not Have (Boolean NOT)
    Case Sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • Language
    • Country
    • Domain (U.S. only)
    Phrases
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    Truncation
    • None

    Main screen
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology:
      • all the words (Boolean AND)
      • any of the words (Boolean OR)
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    •  
    Fields
    • Offers links to specialty engines, e.g., FTP Search, MP3 Search, Multimedia Search, etc.
    Phrases
    • the exact phrase
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle." This is useful for multi-term searches using the option all the words or any of the words.
    Truncation
    • None

    Advanced Search

    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    Boolean Logic
    • Must include (Boolean AND)
    • Should include (Boolean OR)
    • Must not include (Boolean NOT)
    Fields
    • Language
    • Domain (can include or exclude)
    Truncation
    • None

    Main screen
    Boolean Logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to Boolean OR
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    • Full case sensitivity supported
    Fields
    • Supported fields:
      • Title, e.g., title:"New York Times"
      • Url, e.g., url:holocaust
      • Site, e.g., site:ibm.com
      • Link e.g., link:www.microsoft.com
      • Alt, e.g., alt:Clinton [finds word in the picture label]
    • Image, audio, video searching available from this interface
    Phrases
    • Phrase search in one of two ways:
      • Place phrase within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
      • Insert hyphen between each word, e.g., budget-battle
    Truncation
    • No truncation symbol; engine stems each term
    Other
    • Separate a search of proper names with a comma:
      Bill Clinton, Bob Dole
    • Use a pipe (|) to limit search results from within a retrieved set
      • dogs | poodles

    Power Search

    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology (up to three levels)
      • Must contain the phrase, name, word(s) (Boolean AND)
      • Should contain the phrase, name, word(s) (Boolean OR)
      • Should not contain the phrase, name, word(s) (Boolean NOT)
    Case Sensitivity
    • Full case sensitivity supported
    Fields
    • Document
    • Title
    • URL
    • Hyperlink
    • Second level domain combined with .com, .edu, .gov, .net, .org
    Phrases
    • Phrase
    Truncation
    • No truncation symbol; engine stems each term

    Main screen
    Boolean logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to Boolean AND
    • Words are automatically searched in proximity
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    • OR is supported if typed in CAPS, e.g., college OR university; works only with multiple single words
    Case sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • Link, e.g., link:www.microsoft.com [Shows pages linking to the URL]
    • Cache, e.g., cache:www.microsoft.com [Shows page used to provide content used to judge relevancy]
    • URL, e.g., www.microsoft.com [Gives options to see cached page, pages similar to the target page, pages that link to the target page, and pages that contain the URL as a term]
    Phrases Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    Truncation
    • None
    Other Employs numerous stop words; use + to search on these words, e.g., "sign +of +the times"

    Advanced search

    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology:
      • Search for pages that contain the word(s), the phrase (Boolean AND)
      • Exclude any pages that contain the word(s), the phrase (Boolean NOT)
    Case Sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • Language
    • URL or domain
    Phrases
    • Search for pages that contain the phrase
    • Exclude pages that contain the phrase
    Truncation None
    Other
    • Find pages that link to the page
    • Find pages that are similar to the page
    • Also links to its specialized topical searches, e.g., U.S. Government, University Search, etc.
    Main screen
    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology:
      • all the words (Boolean AND)
      • any of the words (Boolean OR)
      • the person (proximity of terms)
      • Boolean phrase
    • Boolean phrase option supports AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT. Boolean searches with parentheses are supported with this option, i,e., behavior AND (cats OR felines).
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    • Limited support within words, e.g., neXT
    Fields
    • the page title
    • links to this URL
    • Various date options
    • Language
    • Multimedia and script types
    • Meta Words offer manual input off search restrictions such as media type and date. For more information, see Advanced Help file at http://www.hotbot.com/help/tips/search_features.asp
    Phrases
    • Exact phrase
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle." This is useful for multi-term searches using the option all the words or any of the words.
    Truncation
    • Mandatory truncation
    • Truncation character: *
    • Truncation at the beginning of a word, e.g., *scope

    Advanced Search
    All the features above with the following additions
    Boolean Logic
    • must contain the words, the person, the phrase (Boolean AND)
    • should contain the words, the person, the phrase (Boolean OR)
    • must not contain the words, the person, the phrase (Boolean NOT)
    • Added windows for subject searching; click on + icon to add more windows (2 may be added for a maximum of 4)
    Fields
    • Date
    • Language
    • Location by location or domain
    • Page type
    • File/program types including
      • Java
      • JavaScript
      • ActiveX
      • VRML
      • Acrobat
      • VB Script
      • File Extension
      • Various media types
    Truncation
    • Word stemming feature so that truncation is not necessary
    Other
    • Can limit results to page depth, e.g., "Top Page," "Personal Page," or user-defined depth

    Main screen

    Boolean Logic
    • Keyword search defaulting to Boolean AND
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • None
    Phrases
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    • Phrases with stop words are searchable if other words also appear in the phrase
    Truncation
    • No searching a word that starts with a number, e.g., 11th

    Advanced search

    Boolean Logic
    • Boolean logic via template terminology:
      • all words (AND match)
      • any words (OR match)
    Case Sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • Language
    • Multimedia
    • Various topics
    Phrases
    • exact phrase (quoted query)
    Truncation
    • None

    Main screen

    Boolean Logic
    • Template terminology: any (Boolean OR), all (Boolean AND
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity
    • None
    Fields
    • None
    Phrases
    • phrase
    • Phrases within quotations, i.e., "budget battle," to use with a search for any or all
    Truncation
    • None

    Power Search

    All options as above with the following addition:

    Fields
    • Domain/Origin
    Main Screen
    Boolean Logic
    • Keyword searching defaulting to Boolean AND
    • Boolean AND, OR, NOT
    • Implied Boolean logic: + for Boolean AND, - for Boolean NOT
    Case Sensitivity None
    Fields
    • URL, e.g., URL:whitehouse
    • Title, e.g., title:"White House"
    • Pub (searches certain Special Collections journals), e.g., pub:Billboard
    • Company (searches certain Special Collections journals), e.g., company:ibm
    • Ticker, e.g., ticker:ibm
    • Text, e.g., text:"White House"
    • SORT:date (sorts results by date from newest to oldest)
    Phrases
    • Phrases within quotations, e.g., "budget battle"
    Truncation
    • Automatic for common singular and plural word forms
    • * truncation character replaces multiple characters if the word contains at least four characters, e.g., librar* will retrieve library, libraries, librarian, librarians, librarianship, etc.
    • % truncation character replaces a single character, e.g., colo%r

    Power Search

    User fill-in template with supplied terminology
    All the features above with the following additions:

    Fields
    • Title
    • URL
    • Publication name
    • Country
    • Date range
    • Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish)
    Other

    Limits results to various sources, topics and document types

    Any comments, concerns, questions or suggestions should be directed to:

    Library Webmaster
    Paul Meek Library
    University of Tennessee at Martin
    Martin, TN 38238