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Here is where your Boolean searches
become even more powerful. Putting parentheses
around groups of terms define the order in which the
Boolean operators perform their operations.
Examples
(bmw AND mercedes) NEAR cars AND NOT (used OR
Ferrari)
This search will first find pages where both the words bmw
and mercedes appear within 10 words of the word cars.
Of these pages, it will exclude pages that include
either used or Ferrari.
bmw AND mercedes NEAR cars AND NOT
used OR Ferrari
This search without the parentheses will give you
completely different results. Going from left to right,
the results would first find pages that include both bmw
and mercedes. Of these pages, only pages where mercedes
is within 10 words of cars would be included. Of
these pages, it would exclude pages with the word used.
That last OR really screws up everything because
the results your browser will show will include all of
the pages that have been found so far, or ANY PAGE
that includes the word Ferrari!
As you can see, proper use of
parentheses can make your search much more targeted.
SORTING YOUR RECORDS
Alta Vista will
automatically sort your results. If you have multiple
search terms, it will rank them with the rarest word
carrying the most weight.
Example
nurse OR ventilator
Pages with both terms will be listed first, then
pages with ventilator (the rarer of the two terms),
and then pages with nurse.
Alta Vista's advanced
search has a "Sort By" box. This is handy
if you require the page to include a particular
word/words, but have other words that aren't necessarily
required but you would prefer to have show up on the page.
Example
Say you are looking for a website with nursing jobs. You
want an RN job, and prefer that it be in California,
Illinois, Georgia, or Texas. You could construct your
search by entering these terms in the Search box and the
Sort Box:
(SEARCH BOX): jobs AND nurse
(SORT BOX): RN registered California Illinois Georgia
Texas
Your results will find all pages that include both jobs
and nurse. It will order your results by pages with
the most sort words you entered.
Practice these search
techniques and you will be able to find whatever you are
looking for with ease!
-Bob Paton
bob@studentnurses.com
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