Boolean Searches

Have you ever heard of Boolean Searches? If you've done any research or taken any classes about the internet within the past decade, you most likely have. These advanced searching tools are key to successfully navigating the expansive world wide web to find exactly what you're looking for. They are simple rules that all search engines, like Google or Bing, use to help you find exactly what you need. I LOVE knowing these rules, so I thought I would share!

• "Quotations"
• These are used to find exactly phrases. For example, if you're looking for information on irish whiskey and type that phrase alone into Google, it will not only search for both words together, but also both words separately leaving you with pages of unhelpful information to muck through. By typing "irish whiskey" you will come up with only results that pertain to the entire phrase. 
• AND
• Using this tool, you are able to search for multiple things at once and your search results will contain only material with both of the words or phrases you've chosen. For example, typing dogs AND cats, your results will all contain both dogs and cats. This also works with quotations to combine phrases. Searching for "irish whiskey" AND "bars in Wisconsin" will come up with those very specific results. 
• OR
• This is used to find topics with at least one of the words or phrases included. It comes in handy when there are multiple versions of words or phrases. A good example is VP OR "Vice President" OR "V.P.". 
• NOT
• This is nice to know when you keep coming up with extra words that you don't want to include. For example, let's say you're looking for the top social media channels other than Facebook. You could type something like "Social media" NOT LinkedIn. 
• Parenthesis 
• Finally, we have parenthesis. Use these when you're trying to combine multiple tools above to find something. When you start looking for very specific information, these are extremely convenient. An example would be Account AND (executive OR coordinator). 

I hope this helps! Happy searching! 

Love AND knowledge, 

Christine 

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