What this means is that your query -- the description of your information need -- can be as detailed as you like. Don't worry about providing too many words; the more words, the better. Additional words in your query will help Roughstock powered by Excite figure out what concepts you're really interested in. On the other hand, Roughstock powered by Excite will do a pretty good job of figuring out what documents are interesting to you even if your query is vague.
For example, let's say you're searching Roughstock for documents about album sales by Garth Brooks. A good starting point would be
Garth Brooks album sales
If you have a question about a particular George Strait album,
for example if you wanted to know the album that contained the lyric "She kicked me out
of the house," you might choose a query like
George Strait album lyric She kicked
me out of the house
Even if there are no documents that are actually about that particular lyric,
Roughstock powered by Excite will still show you documents about George Strait albums and
lyrics.
Use More Words
The easiest way to narrow your Roughstock powered by Excite search and the first thing
you should try is to simply use more words in your query. The
greater the detail you provide, the better Roughstock powered by Excite is able to find
precisely what you're looking for. Also try using the
Query
By Example option on the search results page.
Use + to Require Words
Put a plus sign (+) in front of a search word and Roughstock powered by Excite
will make sure that ALL of the documents it returns contain the word.
Example search: Garth Brooks +duet.
Use - to Exclude Words
Put a minus sign (-) in front of a search word and Roughstock powered by Excite
will make sure that NONE of the documents it returns contain the word.
Example search: rodeo -bull -bareback.
Use AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT, ( )
Roughstock powered by Excite supports full Boolean operators and syntax. You c
an use the AND, OR, NOT, and AND NOT operators, and parentheses ( ) for grouping
. Example search: swimming AND (man OR woman).
Using a Plus Sign (+) to Require Words
What it does:
Roughstock powered by Excite will make sure that ALL of the documents it finds include
the word(s) you specify as being required.
How to use it:
In your search text, put a plus sign (+) in front of words that
must be in documents that Roughstock powered by Excite finds. Do not put a space between
the plus sign (+) and the word. For example, to find documents
about rodeo, but only those with the term NFR in them you could
enter:
rodeo +NFR
What's different about it:
Without the plus sign (+), Roughstock powered by Excite looks for documents about any
of the words in your search text. Roughstock powered by Excite will rank documents
that have all of the words higher, but will also list documents
that have only some of your search words as well as documents
that may have none of your search words, but that appear to be
conceptually related.
The downside:
You may miss related documents that don't have the words you specify
as required. For example, the search "rodeo +NFR"
would not include documents that have the words National Finals Rodeo, but not NHL.
Using a Minus Sign (-) to Exclude Words
What it does:
Roughstock powered by Excite will make sure that NONE of the documents it finds contain
any word(s) you specify to exclude.
How to do it:
In your search text, put a minus sign (-) in front of words that
must not be in documents that Roughstock powered by Excite finds. Do not put any space
between the minus sign (-) and the word. For example, if you want
to find documents about Garth Brooks but not the group Brooks & Dunn, you could enter: Brooks -Dunn
What's different about it:
Without the minus sign (-), Roughstock powered by Excite looks for documents that are
conceptually-related to all the search words you provide, rather
than looking for items to exclude from the results.
The downside:
It's easy to exclude too much. For example, if you were looking
for information on Garth Brooks and not Brooks & Dunn, the
search "Brooks -Dunn" would exclude a document that
was all about Garth Brooks, but that had the sentence "Garth Brooks
was nominated along with Brooks & Dunn."
Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT and ()
What they do/How to use them:
AND - Documents found must contain all words joined by the AND
operator. Note that this is equivalent to putting a plus sign
(+) in front of the word. For example, to find documents that
have all of the words rodeo, winning and NFR, you could enter: rodeo
AND winning AND NFR
OR - Documents found must contain at least one of the words joined by OR. For example, to find documents that have either the words bullriding or broncriding you could enter: bullriding OR broncriding
AND NOT - Documents found cannot contain the word after the term AND NOT. Note that this is equivalent to putting a minus sign (-) in front of the word. For example, to find documents that have the word rodeo, but not the word bull, you could enter: rodeo AND NOT bull
( ) - Parentheses are used to group portions of Boolean queries together. For example, to find documents that have the word riding, and either the word saddle or the word bull or the word bareback in them, you could enter: riding AND (saddle OR bronc OR bareback)
What's different about it:
Allows for excluding and requiring words, and complex combinations
of words.
The downside:
It's often difficult to specify exactly what you want to include
or exclude. You can also get unexpected results if you are not
careful about your use of operators and parentheses. For example,
the search bull OR bronc AND bareback is the same as the search
bull OR (bareback AND bronc). Both queries will find documents
that contain both bareback and bronc, together with documents
that contain the word bull. However, the query (bull OR
bareback) AND bronc is not the same. It will find documents containing
the word bronc and, in the same document, either bull or
bareback. Be careful out there!
Click here for the search page.
