Searching | Evaluation | Ethical Use
Locating Resources on the Web
Tip #9 Focus on Format.
When you query a search engine, the engine attempts to match your keywords against all the text in a web document, no matter where in the document the text appears. This approach will maximize the number of documents you retrieve so you won't miss something relevant. However it is sometimes more efficient and effective to look for matches with the text found in the most important parts of a web document.
Keywords that appear in the title of a page or in the actual URL (web address) of the site may indicate greater relevance to your search. Documents that contain your query terms in the title are more likely to be about the topic you are researching. After all, that's what titles are for.
Search engines often provide advanced operators that help you search specific parts of a webpage's format. Google offers several powerful format operators. Consider a few examples from Google's Advanced Operators page:
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results
to documents containing that word in the title.
For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to
documents containing that word in the url (universal resource locator, also called the web address).
For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word. Using format operators is a powerful, and specific way to focus your search. Why not try it yourself and see?
Online Learning Module: Formats: How to search documents in non-HTML formats.