how to do a boolean search in google
TRANSCRIPT
No Knives Better Lives Action Research Project
How to do a Boolean search
Searching the internet is useful for all aspects of modern life. Switch on your phone and the google search symbol
appears. Often when you search using key words there are thousands
of results. Now you can make your searches smarter. It’s quick & easy. Use it for the NKBL project, shopping online and exploring
the world around you.
Why we need to learn about Boolean searches
Make sure you include all of the words you want to search with quotation marks for each word:
E.g. “knife” “carrying”
This means you will search both knife and carrying.
Exact Word Search
“Knife” “carrying”
To search for two or more words in a certain order use quotation marks
E.g. “Knife crime” In this search knife and crime
must appear together.
Phrase searching
“knife crime”
Putting AND or the + symbol between search words means that it will search both A and B.
This is particularly useful for narrowing the search to certain areas
E.g. “Knife crime”+ Glasgow When you do this the search will
prioritise where both knife crime and Glasgow appear together in a document.
Using ‘AND’ or ‘+’
“Knife crime”+ Glasgow
An asterisk is used to find unknown words.
E.g. “violent *” In this example it would search all
terms pre-fixed with viol such as violent and violence.
Wild cards *
“knife *”
In the last example the search will show up an American band called ‘violent femmes’ to exclude them from your search use AND NOT or ‘-’
E.g. “violent *” –”violent femmes”
All references to violent femmes are removed.
This is useful to remove certain areas from your search (E.g. –England)
Using ‘AND NOT’ or ‘-’
“knife crime”-England
Putting OR between search words means that it will search either A or B.
E.g. knife OR weapon When you do this only one of
them will appear in the search results
Using ‘OR’
knife OR weapon
You can do more complex searches by combining operators.
E.g. “knife” (crime OR carrying OR weapon)+Glasgow
This search will look for knife and only one of the three words in the brackets where they appear with the word Glasgow.
Combinations
“knife” (crime OR carrying OR weapon)+Glasgow
Remember to check it out with your youth worker if you have any questions.
Happy Searching!