Here's some help on searching our site
Our search engine gives web users access to a sophisticated concept-based
searching engine. But even though the search engine is advanced, users
can form queries without using a complicated query language. This page
will help you to choose the queries that will give you the best
results.
Query Basics
A query is simply a description of an information need. Unlike Boolean
systems that search for just those documents containing all the
words in your query, our search engine will search for documents that are a
best match for the words in your query. our search engine will also search for
documents that are about the same concepts that your query describes,
so sometimes our search engine will bring back articles that don't mention
any of the words in your original query.
What this means is that your query -- the description of your
information need -- can be as detailed as you like. Don't worry about
providing too many words; the more words, the better. Additional words
in your query will help our search engine figure out what concepts you're
really interested in. On the other hand, our search engine will do a pretty
good job of figuring out what documents are interesting to you even if
your query is vague.
For example, let's say you're searching a web site for documents about
customer support for the Widget2000 product you're using. A good
starting point would be
customer support for the Widget2000
If you have a question about a particular feature of the Widget2000,
for example the Blurfl upgrade package, you might choose a query like
customer support for the Blurfl upgrade package
of the Widget2000
Even if there are no documents that are actually about the Blurfl
upgrade, our search engine will still show you documents about Widget2000
customer support.
Advanced Query Tips
Here are some suggestions for getting the best results out of
our search engine.
- Only use words that are relevant to your query
-
If you're looking for documents about the Widget2000, don't enter a
query like "
Find me all documents about the Widget2000". our search engine
considers all the words in your query to be part of your
information need, so queries like the previous example will find all
documents about finding all documents about the Widget2000, which
may not be exactly what you want.
- Specify multiple forms of the same phrases
-
our search engine distinguishes between hyphenated and un-hyphenated words. So,
sometimes it might be necessary to explicitly say that you want both
versions, for example "
CDROM CD-ROM". our search engine will try to figure
out that CDROM and CD-ROM are the same, but it never hurts to
explicitly specify multiple forms.
- Common words are ignored
-
our search engine doesn't index common words like a, and, or the.
Consequently, those words in your query will be ignored. our search engine also
ignores numbers; however, it can find strings that happen to contain a
number, for example 3Com.
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