Net search methods

[Cockney Guy]

Can anyone please tell me how to search the web for anything containing two specific words or phrases? Example; if I wanted to find a result containing both gardian newspaper and railways using Ask or google, how would I request the search to ensure that only BOTH gardian newpaper and railways were contained in the result and not just one or the other?

Thanks for your help CG

[Buenchico]

I thought that only people who write for the Guardian can't actually spell the name ;-)

If you want to look for a specific 'string', rather than for individual words, put double quotation marks around that string. e.g
"english setters"
will only find references where the word 'setters' immediately follows 'english'. It will ignore individual occurrences of 'english' and 'setters'.

If you want to ensure that a search engine only returns pages which must have a specific term in them, add a '+' sign immediately in front of that term, with no spaces. So, for example,
+"english setters" +breeder
will only return pages that include both search terms (because there's a '+' in front of both terms).

If you want to exclude a certain term, put a '-' immediately in front of it. For example, suppose I was searching for breeders of English setters but I kept getting lots of results for a breeder trading as Doggybest, who I wasn't interested in. I Could then use this search:
+"english setters" +breeder -doggybest

With your specific example, I wouldn't choose to use the string "guardian newspaper", because it would exclude references which just mentioned 'the Guardian'. I'd omit the 'newspapers' term altogether, and just use this search:
+guardian +railways

Chris

[Cockney Guy]

Thank you Chris. I should have used Daily Mirror as my example LOL. I blame that rotton skoowl I went to...ha ha.

Seriously though, I'm really pleased with such a comprehensive answer so thanks for that. In fact, I have copied it to a word document so that I can refer to it until I get used to it.

Cheers for your help

[Cockney Guy]

See Chris, I meant for you to have the three stars, not me. Give me time and I'll get used to this strange thing with a keyboard ;-} or maybe it could be this rather nice beer I'm dinking.

Thanks again

[Ethel]

Using a search engine effectively is as essential as knowing the alphabet in order to use a encyclopaedia properly, in my opinion, but it is a skill many internet users seem to lack.

Chris has, as ever, given an excellent answer, and I would like to add this link as further reading:

http://googlemyway.com/searchgoogle.php

The internet is a fantastic tool, but even better when you know how to search it.

[Cockney Guy]

Thank you Ethel for yet another excellent reply. I'm now intent on studying search methods as I'm sure you are right regarding the importance of properly understanding it and thank you for the link.

I hope my bad spelling gave you a laugh. Reward for your very appreciated response to my post, I hope.

Kind regards C.G.