How to optimize your search with operators April 14, 2008
Posted by blogtouche in Tips.Tags: boolean, boolean search, mysql, operator, search, search engine, search internet, search results, search web
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Search engines have become so fast that they can return thousands or millions of results in less than a second. But are you really gonna spend your time browsing a result list of that size? Guess not. You can use boolean operators to filter out undesired results.
apple juice : Find sites that contain at least one of the two words. This is the mostly used type of search. It will return lots of results.
+apple juice : Find sites that contain the word “apple”, but rank sites higher if they also contain the word “juice”.
+apple +juice : Find sites that contain both words.
+apple -juice : Find sites that contain the word “apple” but not the word “juice”.
+apple ~juice : Find sites that contain the word “apple”, but if the site also contains the word “juice”, rate it lower than if site does not.
+(orange apple) +juice : Find sites that contain the words “orange” and “juice” or the words “apple” and “juice”.
+apple >juice : Find sites that contain the word “apple” but list higher the sites that also contain “juice”.
+apple <juice : Find sites that contain the word “apple” but list lower the sites that also contain “juice”.
appl* : Find sites that contain words such as “apple”, “apples”, “applet” or “application”.
“apple juice” : Find sites that contain the exact text “apple juice”. This type of query is useful for searching using people’s name.
