Research Techniques for Internet Searches

Author: Leela Gantman is a graduate of BA Communication (Information) working in public relations.

When researching a topic on the web, or in a database, there are some basic research techniques that can help increase your chances of finding relevant information.

Firstly the use of BOOLEAN LOGIC. Boolean Logic refers to the use of AND, OR, and AND NOT. When creating a search query, using one of these Boolean operators will increase or reduce the information retrieved.

For example-
Birds AND cats will only bring back documents with both the words birds and cats in them, and will therefore limit the number of documents found.
Birds OR cats will bring back documents with either the word birds or cats, and will therefore broaden the amount of documents retrieved.
Birds AND NOT cats will bring back only those documents that contain the word birds and not the word cats, and will therefore limit the number of documents retrieved.

Note- AND NOT should only be used if you are certain you do not want that word, or else you may keep relevant documents from being retrieved. For example, there may be an extremely helpful document on birds, which simply mentions cats as a predator of birds, which will not be retrieved using this query.

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To use the Boolean operators effectively, you will often need to use a technique called NESTING. This is simply the use of parenthesis to indicate what the system must do first.

For example-
(Cats OR birds) AND NOT (dogs or mice).

This query will retrieve information containing the words cats or birds, and not any that contain dogs or mice. Nesting allows you to tailor your search queries to the specific problem.

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A helpful research tool is TRUNCATION. Truncation allows you to retrieve variations of the same word.

For example, I am looking for information on Australia. Information related to this topic will be found by using the search query Australia, but could also be found using the search query Australian.

If I use truncation my search query will look like this-
Australia*

This simply means that the system will retrieve this word with any different ending. Truncation should only be used when the number of options is still relevant to the cause. For example, in the first example cats, you could not use truncation on cat*. This would bring back cat and cats, but also catastrophe, catch, cattle, cater etc.

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Another tool for research is the use of PROXIMITY OPERATORS. Proximity operators specify the distance one word can be from another. The most common tools used are NEAR and ADJ.

For example-

Ozone NEAR Layer will bring back documents with the words in close proximity to each other.

Benjamin ADJ Franklin, will bring back documents which contain the phrase Benjamin Franklin, or Franklin Benjamin adjacent to each other.

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When using a database or search engine it is important to first read the help screens and see what techniques can and cannot be used. For example, some databases use the $ sign for truncation whilst some use the * sign, whilst some do not accept its use at all! Some systems do not allow the use of proximity operators, and Google automatically uses the Boolean operator AND whether it is included in the search query or not.

By examining how the search engine you are using works, you can tailor your search queries to suit the system, and increase the effectiveness of your search.

'Copyright 2003 Youth 2 Youth'

Disclaimer: This article is for your information, but it may not apply to or be suitable for your situation, so seek professional advice. Youth 2 Youth or Y-Biz Hothouse cannot be held liable for anything resulting from how you use the information provided in this article.