Search Strategies for Databases and Search Engines
1. Always type AND, OR, and NOT in capitalized form.
2 . Always use synonyms. Group similar words or synonyms with OR and parenthesis. Group different concepts together
with AND.
3. Use wildcard (*) toward the end of a keyword to retrieve all variations of that word. [Do not use it on Google]
4. Use double quotes (“”) around two or more words when you want the database or search engine to search for those
words as a phrase.
5. Always do a comprehensive search and then narrow it down.
6. Build your vocabulary as you search for articles in different databases and search engines.
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Google Search Techniques |
Web |
Scholar |
Patents |
Video |
Images |
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Automatic spell-check |
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Search for a specific phrase → "Computer Simulation” |
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Exclude words using '-' sign → Games -online [no space after minus sign] |
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| Combine search using OR → race OR marathon | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
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Word in the title → allintitle:“real-time simulation” [no space after colon] |
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Words in the text → allintext:“real-time simulation” [no space after colon] |
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Related website search → related:cnn.com [To retrieve similar sites] |
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Specific document type → "augmented reality" filetype:ppt [no space after colon] |
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Search within a specific website → site:cdc.gov "SARS fever" [no space after colon] |
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View cached version of a site → cache:sjsu.edu [no space after colon] |
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Use @ for social media → @orkut |
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Use $ to return price → Laptop $500 |
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Search # → #sjsuspartans |
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Other Search Techniques