Use general words for a broad search. For example, Use Nutrition instead of Low Fat Diets Use specific words for a narrower search. For example, Use Battle of Gettysburg instead of Civil War Use related words to pick up synonyms of similar concepts. If you wish to search for keywords which appear in a certain order, e.g., spring break , you can use what is commonly called phrase searching . Almost all search engines support phrase searching.
Some engines default to phrase searching.
In some engines, trunction is the default. The use of boolean operators in your search enables you to more precisely tailor your search results. There is a very useful site on the web which explains how this works. AND retrieves a smaller set. NOT eliminates some items.