Where have all the Boolean Search Operators gone?

Take your pick:

a) It used to be alot easier to find relevent answers on the internet.
b) I used to be a lot smarter.


The thing that gets me, I seem to remember being able to use operators such as 'AND', 'OR' in searches.

It gets a little old going through 8 billion search results that have nothing to do with my search.


recently: windows xp computer iis6.log

out of 100 results probably 85% of results pertain to windows 2003 server, or windows 2000.


recently: event 1073 user32.dll

Only 3 of the results have both event 1073 and user32.dll


i mostly use google. I have tried several others but they do not seem any better to me. I looked at "advanced search" which doesn't seem to expand on my options. I can't believe there is way to seach using AND and OR. I can believe there is but I just don't know it. I bet I even know who knows...BigC!


-HandsOff

 

Unfortunatly this is what search engines have mutated in to. The operators of the search portals try to make it an easier experience for the average user to enhance their search experience. But to the more advanced user it has really thrown a lot of useless search results at us. The advanced search helps a little but it is not what it used to be. I guess it is just the signs of the times. I still have pretty good results by rephrasing my search request several times and that seems to help sometimes. But I don't see the search portals getting any better for the advanced user anytime soon

bigc

 

Have you tried symbols rather than words?

ie. & AND, | OR, ~ NEAR, ! NOT

+ required term / - prohibited term

phrases - "blah blah" or seperate terms with ;

 

Example - "Viet Nam" +Saigon -conflict -war

See the search result - http://www.google.com/search?num=10..."Viet Nam" +Saigon -conflict -war&btnG=Search

No mention of the War or Conflict

 

Dog -

You have Provided a very powerful tool. This could change the entire face of the internet for me! Incidentally, in the past i fell for the old perenthesis mistake. Your example demonstrates the proper way.

This would definitely have been cookie earner!
(or in your case a milkbone!)


-HandsOff

 

I am doing a bit better, but still am finding ways to misunderstand the rules of searching google (which are probably used by many others too)

... I found to my horror and dismay that when you google search and enclose a term in quotes, it does NOT mean that the exact characters in the exact order will need to be matched. a lot of characters are ignored, and unfortunately rather key ones at that. for instance, "file.exe" seems to be considered the same as "file..exe", and "fileexe"). I havent really checked thouroughly but i can guess the rule.

actually, I am extrapolating from my attempt to search for

{4F656244-76E5-4E12-946D-B3BD4EF2AFF7}.dat

When it did not return a result I tried to come up with a way to search for any clsid.dat. The easiest route seemed like "}.dat" which turned out not to work. Then "}" +.dat Then i remembered this thread, which reminded me I better check my email...which I am going to do now...


- HandsOff