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Gigablast Advanced Search Tips

1. Let's say that you want to search for a term or phrase while excluding a specific term or phrase from the search results. Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT) can be used for this purpose. (Enter boolean operators in upper case letters.) Below are some examples of this type of search:

The following example returns fruit pie recipes, but excludes apple pie recipes:

"fruit pie recipes" AND NOT apple

Another method for entering the above search is to use a minus (-) symbol in place of the phrase AND NOT:

"fruit pie recipes" -apple

Perhaps the search interest is not fruit, but is Apple computers or electronics. The below example searches for apple but NOT iphone:

apple -iphone

The next two examples illustrate using two operators together in the same search query. When entering a search query in parenthesis, spell out the operator rather than using the symbol.

The following example searches for horses and ponies, but NOT Shetland ponies:

(horses OR ponies) AND NOT shetland

Below is an example of a nested search that uses multiple search terms. This searches for trains and locomotives, but NOT electric trains or trolleys:

(trains OR locomotives) AND NOT (electric OR trolleys)

2. Searching for document types.

Below are examples of how to use Gigablast to find information that is contained in certain document types:

"swimming pools" type:pdf (for information on swimming pools in PDF)
"south africa" type:doc (for information on South Africa in Microsoft Word)
insurance type:xls (for information on statistical information on insurance in Microsoft Excel)
internet type:ppt (for a Microsoft Power Point document dealing with the Internet)


3. Searching for two words or phrases, with one of the words or phrases being ranked higher in importance than the other.

Let's say that you want to search for sites containing information on both Park Hill (Oklahoma) and Lake Tenkiller (Oklahoma), but you want Gigablast to rank sites focusing on Lake Tenkiller higher in the search results. The following example accomplishes this task:

"park hill" | "lake tenkiller" (NOTE: The | symbol is also called the "pipe" symbol. This symbol is located on the keyboard above the ENTER key)

Below is an example of a search for web sites containing information on both Gouda and Friesekaas, which are popular cheeses in Holland. In this example Friesekaas is ranked higher than Gouda in the search results.

gouda | friesekaas

Page maintained by: Gary Cheatham
Last updated: September 29, 2011