Google automatically looks for all words you enter into your search separately
EG: if you look up global warming, Google will show hits for all sites/resources that have the words global and warming.
Use all lowercase and avoid plural terms in searches for better results
You can use Google’s Advanced Search to effectively focus search results.Watch this video to learn how!
Google News is a great source for current event information. Watch this video to learn how to use it effectively!
Boolean Operators (a fancy way to use "and", "or" and "not")
*see the "how to" video below
Term
Example
Results
and
+
pollution and cancer
Sites/resources containing both of the keywords will appear
or
pollution and cancer or asthma
Sites/resources that refer to pollution and cancer OR pollution and asthma
not
pollution and cancer not disease
Sites/resources that specifically report on cancer and pollution, not general diseases in relation to pollution
( )
(pollution and cancer)and asthma
Pollution and cancer will be searched first and then asthma added. So, the main focus is the first two words but another key term adds more detailed results
“ “
“global warming”
Whole phrase will be searched instead of global and warming separately
How to use Boolean Operators to improve your online topic search
