Searching Tools and Tips

* PLEASE NOTE THAT BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY HAS MIGRATED ALL SEARCH FUNCTIONS
   TO THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE AS OF YEAR 2004. 

To begin your search, start here.
Options are: Search: The Internet
or Search: Boise State 

Select one of the radio buttons...you must pick one to proceed.

If you are looking for something specific to the College Of Business and Economics
include that in your search criteria (or use: COBE and ___________ ) Please see 
suggested search parameters below...

To refine your search...use the Command found at the bottom of your first
return 'hits' page...enter additional criteria in the textbox and then click on
"Search within results" and your relevancy % should dramatically increase when you
properly use the 'search within a search' function. 

To use any search page, you can look for a single word. Or, use the tips below to refine your search to find more specific results.

  • Look for a phrase.
    Example - type sports events to find the exact phrase sports events. Since the search is not case-sensitive, this is equivalent to Sports Events.
  • Look for two or more words at once by using the AND operator.
    Example - type sports AND events to find documents that have both the word sports and the word events anywhere.
  • Look for words that are close to each other by using the NEAR operator instead of the AND operator. When you use NEAR, the closer together the words are, the higher the rank of the page, so the higher it appears in the list of search results.
    Example - type sports NEAR events to match documents where the word sports is within 50 words of the word events.
  • Look for synonyms or similar words by using the OR operator. Note that if you don't use the OR operator and search using multiple words, the words are treated as a phrase.
    Example - type dogs OR puppies to find the word dogs or the word puppies, but not necessarily both.
  • Limit your search by using the AND NOT operator to exclude words.
    Example - type surfing AND NOT the Internet to find all instances of surfing, as long as surfing is not followed by the phrase the Internet.
  • Use double quotes if you want to use AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR literally.
    Example - type "houses near parks" to find documents with the phrase houses near parks. Without the double quotes, this query would use the NEAR operator instead of the phrase.
  • Use a single asterisk (*) to look for words that begin with the same letters.
    Example - type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.
  • Use a double asterisk (**) to look for all forms of a word.
    Example - type fly** to match fly, flew, flown, and flying.

Last Reviewed by pPline on 09/22/2004