Lesson Notes — Advanced Search Strategies, Operators, & Keywords
Course 1: Computer Literacy / Unit 5: TLDs, Search & Information Literacy / Lesson 2: Advanced Search Strategies, Operators, & Keywords
Lesson overview
A search engine is a program that has indexed (collected and cataloged) billions of web pages so it can find matches quickly. It then ranks the results, putting the ones it judges most relevant first. A few simple techniques can help you reach what you need in fewer tries.
Choose strong keywords
- Use specific words that would appear on the page you want. “History of the Nintendo Entertainment System” works better than “old game stuff.”
- Leave out filler words such as “the” or “how do I.”
- If the results are off, change your keywords and try again. This is called query refinement.
Search tools
| Technique | Example | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Exact match | "video game crash" |
Finds pages with that exact phrase |
| Exclude a word (NOT) | jaguar -car |
Removes results containing “car” |
| OR | laptop OR notebook |
Finds pages with either word |
| Wildcard | "the * of the web" |
The star stands for any word |
| Limit to a site type | climate data site:gov |
Searches only government sites |
| File type | resume template filetype:pdf |
Finds only PDF files |
These are called Boolean operators when they connect or exclude words (AND, OR, NOT). Most engines treat spaces between words as AND already, and OR needs to be typed in capital letters.
Search filters
After you search, use search filters such as date range, images, news, or videos to narrow your search results. Filtering by date is useful for topics that change quickly.
Watch out for ads
The first results are sometimes paid ads labeled “Sponsored” or “Ad.” A high ranking does not mean a page is the most accurate.
Check your understanding
- Rewrite “tell me about that thing with the old Pac-Man game” as a better search.
- What does the minus sign do in a search?
- Why might the top result not be the best source?
Use this lesson’s Key Terms page to build your glossary.