Instructions on how to search the Muffoletta website
The search engine is the computer program that searches the
website looking for the word (or words) to be searched. The search
engine looks for matches between the word (or words) to be searched and
all the words on each page of the website.
To search for all the webpages that contain any word (or words),
enter the word (or words) to be searched in the Search String box and
then click the
"Search" button. The search engine will then display the
information it found, which will include:
- Title of each page (which is linked, so that clicking on
the name will open the page)
- Date that the page was last updated
- Size
of the page (in kilobytes)
- Score, which measures how closely the page
matches the search request (a score of 1000 is a "direct hit", while
lower scores denote lesser relevance).
Search engines use words like AND and OR and certain other
words, which are called operators.
Search engines uses operators to understand and conduct the search when
the search involves more than a single word. Searching for
several words on the same page requires one of three possible
formats: put the word AND between each word; put the
word OR between each word; and put no operator between the
words.
NOTE: There are other operators in addition to
AND and OR, but they will not be explained here.
To search for the presence of several words which all must be on the same page, type
the word AND between
each word.
For example, suppose that you read somewhere about Progress Grocery
(one of the earliest muffoletta sandwich sources in New Orleans). Searching on the word
grocery
alone returns six pages. Searching on the word progress alone returns
five pages. However, searching on the words progress AND grocery
returns only one page, which is the only page in the website on which both
words appear.
To search for the presence of any one of several words on the same page,
type the word OR between each word.
In the example above, suppose that you remember only that the page
had either the City of New Orleans or the State of Louisiana.
Searching on the words orleans OR louisiana (remember that
capitalization does not matter) will locate every page on the website
which has either the word New Orleans or the word Louisiana.
It will also locate every page which has both the
word orleans and the word louisiana. There are
other operators which can change this result.
If the words are not separated with any operator, the search engine
assumes that the OR operator applies. Thus, if no operator
is used between words, then the OR operator is assumed.
For example, searching the words new orleans returns
the same result as searching the words new OR orleans.
The AND and OR operators may be combined to conduct
more complex searches.
From the examples above, suppose the you remember that the page you
are trying to find uses either Owensboro or Kentucky and
that it also uses the words barbecue belt. The page can
be located by using the search string owensboro OR kentucky AND
barbecue AND belt.
But wait! This string contains an ambiguity: which of the
following is the search string supposed to be?
- (owensboro OR kentucky) AND (barbecue AND belt)
- (owensboro OR (kentucky AND barbecue AND belt)
(If this looks a little like high school algebra, you're
right.) Like algebra (you do remember your algebra, yes?),
the ambiguity should be removed by using parentheses.
Continuing from the example above, therefore, the search string
should be:
(owensboro OR kentucky) AND (barbecue AND belt)
(Once again, remember that capitalization does not matter, so that
Kentucky, KENTUCKY and kentucky all mean the same word to the serach
engine.)
In summary, to conduct fairly complex searches, practice using
several words, with the pages with several words on the AND and OR
operators, grouped together with parentheses. Do not use any other
operators or symbols except these three (AND, OR and
parentheses), including quotation marks and other operators.
- Randall, Neil and Dennis Jones. Using FrontPage 2000.
Que, Indiana. 1999. At pages 174 ff and 319.
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