Boolean Cubes

When searching on Google, you will probably look at the number of results and feel overwhelmed. Like I had in the previous section, when I searched up "desserts" I got a whopping 294,000,000 results!

Figure 1.8

We need to narrow that down a bit. To do so is called the Boolean Search Logic. Boolean Logic was developed to describe the relationships between different items. For example, I searched up the term "desserts" and got a lot of results. If I wanted to narrow that down, I could use the phrase "'desserts' and 'pumpkin pie'" and I get the following results.

Figure 1.9

By placing the conjunction "and" between my two search items, Google searched for websites that mention both "desserts" and "pumpkin pie." You can see that the results are more manageable, but there are still a lot. Let's say I want articles on pumpkin pie sales from last Thanksgiving, but I keep getting recipes that come up for pumpkin pies. Simply add a negative sign (-) before the word "recipes" and Google will exclude searches pertaining to recipes.

Figure 1.10

Notice the number of results has changed and pumpkin pie recipes are not in my results.

So, just like bouillon cubes can add flavor to soups, Boolean Logic can add some spice to your search results.

For more information on Boolean Logic, click here.

For a list of Boolean Logic terms, click here.

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