Making Queries

Excite for Web Servers gives web users access to a sophisticated concept-basedsearching engine. But even though the search engine is advanced, userscan form queries without using a complicated query language. This pagewill help you to choose the queries that will give you the bestresults.

Query Basics

A query is simply a description of an information need. Unlike Booleansystems that search for just those documents containing all thewords in your query, Excite for Web Servers will search for documents that are abest match for the words in your query. Excite for Web Servers will also search fordocuments that are about the same concepts that your query describes,so sometimes Excite for Web Servers will bring back articles that don't mentionany of the words in your original query.

What this means is that your query -- the description of yourinformation need -- can be as detailed as you like. Don't worry aboutproviding too many words; the more words, the better. Additional wordsin your query will help Excite for Web Servers figure out what concepts you'rereally interested in. On the other hand, Excite for Web Servers will do a prettygood job of figuring out what documents are interesting to you even ifyour query is vague.

For example, let's say you're searching a web site for documents aboutcustomer support for the Widget2000 product you're using. A goodstarting point would be

        customer support for the Widget2000
If you have a question about a particular feature of the Widget2000,for example the Blurfl upgrade package, you might choose a query like

        customer support for the Blurfl upgrade package        of the Widget2000
Even if there are no documents that are actually about the Blurflupgrade, Excite for Web Servers will still show you documents about Widget2000customer support.

Advanced Query Tips

Here are some suggestions for getting the best results out ofExcite for Web Servers.

Use More Words
The easiest way to narrow your Excite for Web Servers search and the first thingyou should try is to simply use more words in your query. Thegreater the detail you provide, the better Excite for Web Servers is able to findprecisely what you're looking for. Also try using theQueryBy Example option on the search results page.

Use + to Require Words
Put a plus sign (+) in front of a search word and Excite for Web Servers willmake sure that ALL of the documents it returns contain the word. Example search: Travel +France.

Use - to Exclude Words
Put a minus sign (-) in front of a search word and Excite for Web Servers will make sure that NONE of the documents it returns contain the word. Example search: Jaguar -car -automobiles.

Use AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT, ( )
Excite for Web Servers supports full Boolean operators and syntax. You can use the AND, OR, NOT, and AND NOT operators, and parentheses ( ) for grouping. Example search: swimming AND (man OR woman).


Using a Plus Sign (+) to Require Words

What it does:
Excite for Web Servers will make sure that ALL of the documents it finds includethe word(s) you specify as being required.

How to use it:
In your search text, put a plus sign (+) in front of words thatmust be in documents that Excite for Web Servers finds. Do not put a space betweenthe plus sign (+) and the word. For example, to find documentsabout hockey, but only those with the term NHL in them you couldenter:

hockey +NHL

What's different about it:
Without the plus sign (+), Excite for Web Servers looks for documents about anyof the words in your search text. Excite for Web Servers will rank documentsthat have all of the words higher, but will also list documentsthat have only some of your search words as well as documentsthat may have none of your search words, but that appear to beconceptually related.

The downside:
You may miss related documents that don't have the words you specifyas required. For example, the search "hockey +NHL"would not include documents that have the words National HockeyLeague, but not NHL.


Using a Minus Sign (-) to Exclude Words

What it does:
Excite for Web Servers will make sure that NONE of the documents it finds containany word(s) you specify to exclude.

How to do it:
In your search text, put a minus sign (-) in front of words thatmust not be in documents that Excite for Web Servers finds. Do not put any spacebetween the minus sign (-) and the word. For example, if you wantto find documents about zeppelin aircraft but not the rock bandLed Zeppelin, you could enter: Zeppelin -Led

What's different about it:
Without the minus sign (-), Excite for Web Servers looks for documents that areconceptually-related to all the search words you provide, ratherthan looking for items to exclude from the results.

The downside:
It's easy to exclude too much. For example, if you were lookingfor information on greyhound dogs and not the bus company, thesearch "greyhound -bus" would exclude a document thatwas all about greyhounds, but that had the sentence "thegreyhound trainers arrived by bus."


Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT and ()

What they do/How to use them:
AND - Documents found must contain all words joined by the ANDoperator. Note that this is equivalent to putting a plus sign(+) in front of the word. For example, to find documents thathave all of the words wizard, oz and movie, you could enter: wizardAND oz AND movie

OR - Documents found must contain at least one of the words joinedby OR. For example, to find documents that have either the words cator kitten you could enter: cat OR kitten

AND NOT - Documents found cannot contain the word after the term AND NOT. Note that this is equivalent to putting a minus sign(-) in front of the word. For example, to find documents thathave the word pets, but not the word dogs, you could enter: petsAND NOT dogs

( ) - Parentheses are used to group portions of Boolean queriestogether. For example, to find documents that have the word fruit, and eitherthe word banana or the word apple in them, you could enter: fruitAND (banana OR apple)

What's different about it:
Allows for excluding and requiring words, and complex combinationsof words.

The downside:
It's often difficult to specify exactly what you want to includeor exclude. You can also get unexpected results if you are notcareful about your use of operators and parentheses. For example,the search bananas OR apples AND oranges is the same as the searchbananas OR (apples AND oranges). Both queries will find documentsthat contain both apples and oranges, together with documentsthat contain the word bananas. However, the query (bananas ORapples) AND oranges is not the same. It will find documents containingthe word oranges and, in the same document, either bananas orapples. Be careful out there!