S e a r c h

Instructions on how to search the Muffoletta website

Search engine

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.

Search

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).

Searching for several words

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.

All words must be on the page

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.

Any of the words must be on the page

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.

Combine operators for more complex searches

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.


Related information

  • Randall, Neil and Dennis Jones.  Using FrontPage 2000.  Que, Indiana.  1999.  At pages 174 ff and 319.

 

 

 

 

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