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Help with Searching

Searching This Site

Keep your searches simple. Use wildcards to search for different routes of the same word, for example "travel*" will also find "traveling" and "travelling".

Searching The Web

How do I search?

There are two ways of searching, by entering keywords or by browsing a list.

The following questions refer to searches using a robot, for example Altavista which can be found at www.altavista.com.

What keywords should I enter?

Two or more words that accurately describe the type of web page you are looking for. You should aim to be as precise as possible as this will reduce the number of pages that are likely to match your search terms.

How can I optimise my search?

There is no clear-cut answer to this question. It depends how the robot treats the key words entered. Does the search engine look for the key words you have entered in any order in a document or in the order you have placed them?

Here are some tips:

• Try adding another word to your search terms. Does this reduce or increase the number of pages listed?
  
  
• If the number goes up then the robot appears to look for the words in any order in any document. To make sure that the search engine looks for the exact words you have typed in the order you have types them, try placing them within double quotes.
  
  
• If the number is still too high and you can't see any suitable matches, try breaking the search up into components. For example, if you are looking for the cheapest airfare to a particular destination, try searching for a site which lists competitive pricing information and searching within that site for your destination.
  
  
• Alternatively, try lateral thinking. In the above example, think of a company that offers cheap flights, perhaps with an unusual name - Trailfinders for example.
  
  
• If these approaches don't succeed, try placing a plus sign before one of the key words you have entered. In the cheap flights example above, enter flights +cheap to emphasise the importance of the word cheap (tip: if using + and - signs, do not use double quotes).
  
  
• You might also try entering a minus sign to indicate that a certain word should not be present in a document. Altavista gives a very good example of this type of search in its Help pages. If you are looking for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that does not contain raisins, enter recipe cookies +chocolate -raisins.
  
  
• Beware entering key words that might have an ambiguous meaning. In the context of the cheap flights example above, entering Sydney as your destination might have ambiguous results - you can fly to Sydney from anywhere in the world!
  
  
• You can also be too precise. Searching for "cheap flights from London Heathrow to Sydney", all within double quotes may result in zero pages found. Entering the same combination of words without quotes might have unpredictable results, as the search engine will not know which words to attribute most importance.
  
  
• If none of these approaches works, try using another search engine, for example Yahoo.
  
  
• Alternatively try the Mother of all search engines which allows you to search multiple search engines simultaneously. This can be found at www.mamma.com.