| Boolean
Operators
Search engines can be considered
as a cluttered resume database. Using detailed searches with Boolean search
operators can drill down and find the information you are looking for faster.
These operators are used to weed out irrelevant pages thereby narrowing your
search results to find exactly what you are looking for.
Each search engine is unique and
we recommend to review the help section on each of the search engines to
determine what Boolean operators are supported.
Boolean Key
AND - The AND operator delivers results
with the terms you requested. For example, searching resume and oracle will
return pages with both terms - resume and oracle.
OR - The OR operator delivers results with
either of the terms you requested. For example, MCSE OR M.C.S.E.
NOT - The NOT operator will not deliver
certain words in your search results. For example, Java NOT coffee will deliver
closer results for JAVA Programmers and not Java Coffee.
NEAR - The NEAR operator locates words
that are located in close proximity to other words. For example, Java NEAR
Programmer. Not every search engine supports this operator.
( ) Parentheses - The ( ) operator allows
you to group terms and build longer search strings. For example, NOT (submit AND
employer) will avoid pages with both names.
* - The * operator is a wild card. Adding
a wild card will find words contain the wild card. For example program* will
help so you do not have to run separate searches for words similar like:
programmer, programming, program
Example of Complex Search String
resume AND (java or JavaScript) AND program* AND
(New York or NY or 212) AND NOT (coffee or submit)
* In some case we recommend to go to the advanced
search option within the search engine.
Search Engine Quick Guide
| . |
AltaVista |
HotBot |
InfoSeek |
Northern
Light |
Snap |
| AND |
resume
AND oracle
+resume
+oracle |
resume
AND oracle |
+resume
+oracle |
resume
AND oracle
+resume
+oracle
|
resume
AND oracle |
| OR |
resume
OR oracle |
resume
OR oracle |
Default
is OR automatically |
resume
OR oracle |
resume
OR oracle |
| NOT |
resume
NOT submit
+resume
–submit |
resume
AND NOT submit
Select
“Must not contain”
|
+resume
-submit |
resume
NOT submit
+resume
-submit
|
resume
AND NOT submit
Select
“Must not contain”
|
| NEAR |
oracle
NEAR programming
(finds
words within 10 words of each other)
|
Not
Supported |
Not
Supported |
Not
Supported |
Not
Supported |
| "
" |
“sales
manager” |
Select
“Exact Phrase” |
“Document
must contain exact phrase” |
“sales
manager” |
Select
“Exact Phrase” |
| (
) |
resume
AND (sales OR “sales manager”) |
resume
AND (sales OR “sales manager”) |
Not
Supported |
resume
AND (sales OR “sales manager”) |
resume
AND (sales OR “sales manager”) |
| *
(Wild Card) |
develop*
(finds develop or developer or any other word starting with develop) |
Not
Supported |
Not
Supported |
*
replaces multiple characters, % replaces one character |
Not
Supported |
| Field
Searches |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
| X-Ray |
host:website.com |
domain:website.com |
“url
must contain” website.com |
“words
in url” website.com |
domain:website.com |
| Flip
Search |
link:website.com |
“links
to this url” http://www.website.com |
“hyperlink
must contain the words” website.com |
link:anysite.com |
“links
to this url” http://www.website.com |
| Page
Title Search |
title:resume |
“words
in the page title” resume |
“title
must contain” resume |
“words
in the title” resume |
“words
in the page title” resume |
| URL
Search |
url:resume |
Not
Supported |
“url
must contain the words” resume |
“words
in url” resume |
Not
Supported
|
Definitions:
- X-Raying - searches
for pages that are all on the same host.
- Flipping
- searches for pages that link to a specific page.
- Page
Title - searches for pages that has specific words in page title.
- URL
Search - searches for pages that has specific words in the URL or web
address.
| 
