Conducting Advanced Electronic Searches

Search engines contain millions of records on Web sites, much as a database or library catalog contains records on books, periodicals, or other materials found in a library. Generally, search engines can be searched by broad categories such as education or health or by more specific keywords.

See sample keyword searches. 667.

Limit the Search. When you limit your search to keywords and broad categories, you may be overwhelmed with information. For example, Figure 32.1 illustrates a keyword search for sources on foster care on Google that produced more than 200 million entries. A keyword search may be ideal for a highly specialized term or topic, such as training for distance runners. For a more general topic — such as foster care — limit your search to find more relevant results. As Figure 32.2 shows, an advanced search produced fewer sources on one aspect of foster care — placing teenagers.

Select Limitations for Advanced Searches. Google and Metacrawler, for example, allow you to limit searches to all, exactly, any, or none of the words you enter. Look for directions for limitations such as these:

Hover over pink letters to see various components of each search.

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FIGURE 32.1 Results of a keyword search for foster care using Google, reporting more than 200 million entries

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FIGURE 32.2 Advanced search results on foster care + “placing teenagers” using Google, reporting 226 entries

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