Become an effective internet researcher by improving your keyword searching.    Boolean Searching on the Internet explains the advantages of using ‘and‘, ‘or‘, or ‘not‘ to link your search terms.

From the Online Learning Center, in a nut shell:

AND is a connector that requires both words to be present in each record of the results.

Use AND to narrow your search, for example:

Search Term –  Hits

• Television – 999 hits
• Violence – 876 hits
• Television and violence – 123 hits

The words ‘television’ and ‘violence’ will both be present in each record.

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OR is a connector that allows either word to be present in each record of the result.

Use OR to expand your search, for example:

Search Term – Hits

• Adolescents – 97 hits
• Teenagers – 75 hits
• Adolescents or teenagers – 172 hits

Either ‘adolecents’ or ‘teenagers’ (or both) will be present in each record.

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NOT is a connector that requires the first word be present in each record in the results,

but only if the record does not contain the second word, for example:

Search Term – Hits

• High school – 423 hits
• Elementary – 652 hits
• High school not elementary – 275 hits

Each record contains the words ‘ high school’, but not the word ‘elementary’.

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Practice the 10 Hit Rule

If you have not found the information you were searching for in the first ten hits,

do not go to the next 999,999 pages.

Change your search terms!

The search engine comes back with the best results

in the first ten hits for the search terms you used.

It’s all up to you!

Sharpen Your Internet Searching Skills!