Expressing your search clearly

The words or phrases you offer the search engines are very important in refining your search.

Normally, the engines accept what you type in as a word no matter what it is.  Freemason is one word; Free mason would be two separate words which would lead to a completely different search result.  Both are different to Mason or Masonry or Masonic.  The computer operates only on what you give it; it does not make the sort of conceptual or intuitive links that the human brain does.

So, you may need to try several searches using variations of a single word or concept, or broader or narrower synonyms to cover the possibilities - for example Architecture, Building, Cathedrals, Gothic, Medieval, York Minster and so on.

However, most search engines also offer ways that words can be linked or extended.  Look for their Help buttons to find explanations.  The two main ways are Operators and Truncation.

Truncation means using a typed symbol which can represent any letter or perhaps a group of letters.  The most commonly used is the asterisk.  If you type in  Mason*, an engine such as Google will search for the word Mason and any other words which begin with those 5 letters - for example Mason, Masonry, Masonic and so on.  A wild card letter occurs in the middle of a word and is often a question mark - Behavio?r will search both Behaviour and Behavior.

Check the Help button for which symbols are used in the particular search engine.  Instead of  * and ? they may use $ or % or & or #.

Operators are particular words which give the search engine an instruction, rather than being searched as a meaning.  The main ones are and, or and not.  These enable you to use several words and to include or exclude certain categories.  Masonry and Lodge would  only list sites which have both words. Masonry or Freemasonry would list sites with either word. Masonry not Bricklaying would list Masonry sites but exclude any containing the word Bricklaying.

Some search engines also allow symbols such as + for and, or - for not. Check the Help button.

If you need to search for an exact phrase, you can usually tell the search engine to read it as one unit (rather than a collection of distinct words) by enclosing it in quotation marks or brackets.   Rosslyn chapel or Knights Templar would bring up a list of sites containing each word separately but "Rosslyn chapel" or (Knights Templar) requires them to be expressed as that phrase.  Again, check the Help button!

Hopefully, these techniques can make your searching a little more efficient by controlling the likely sites your search engine will find.

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These pages are designed by David Beagley for the Hall Board of the Bendigo Masonic Centre.
Responsibility for, and copyright of, content (unless otherwise noted) are his and his alone.

Last updated February 2005