Amherst College Library

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Search Engines

SEARCHER BOOLEAN OPERATORS PHRASE CASE SENSITIVE WILD CARDS Default Search by Field, special features
Google

Exclude (-)
Must include (+)
OR (use upper case for OR)

 YES
"___"
 NO NO And Language, File Format (including PDF), Domain (.com, .gov, country codes, etc.), site (ex: site:amherst.edu)
AltaVista AND, OR, AND NOT, +, -
Can nest operators 		YES
"___"
Near 		YES YES
* 		And

Search tab for images, can also search fields including title:(words in title bar of browser), and link:(finds pages with a link to a given url)
HotBot AND, OR, NOT,
+, -
Can nest operators
 YES
"___" 		Only if within a word. No
 And No file type format, language,Page Content:(can restrict to embedded formats such as Java), title: domain: and linkdomain:(limits to pages linking to specific domain)
Teoma -, OR

YES
"___"

 No No And Can search just title:(intitle:), inurl: or site:(site:www.amherst.edu). Can limit by language, geographic location (geoloc:africa) & good at finding metasites.
Yahoo! AND, OR, NOT
+, -
 YES
"___" 		NO YES
* 		And intitle: site: hostname: link: url: inurl: , feature:
(includes Java, plugins, Shockwave, etc.) + more
Vivisimo AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT
+, -, ()
 YES
"___" 		NO NO And domain: host: site: link: title: url:
SEARCHER BOOLEAN OPERATORS PHRASE CASE SENSITIVE WILD CARDS   LIMIT BY FIELD
Information is from the search engines' documentation, Searchenginewatch.com and Searchenginshowdown.com, 6/21/2004.
 
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