[e-drug] WHO and training (con't): Search engine tips

[Libby Levison <libby@theplateau.com>]

E-drug: WHO and training (con't): Search engine tips
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Dear E-Drug:

Kae Ting Trouilloud wrote about difficulties in finding documents
using a site's own search engine, commenting that all-purpose
search engines often do a better job. I have a quick search tip for
you, that has saved me hours of on-line time.

Most search engines allow you to add additional terms to the
search request, including what Web site to search or the desired
language for the returned results. You can find the exact format for
your search engine of choice by reading the "Advanced Search
Tips" page. But let's say you want information on rational drug use
from the WHO. Set your search to be:

"rational drug use" site:www.who.int

where the command "site:www.who.int" tells the search engine to
only search at that Web address (here, the WHO). The full quotes
around the phrase "rational drug use" are telling the search engine
to only show documents where all three words 'rational', 'drug' and
'use' appear in sequence, as opposed to documents with the word
'rational', and the word 'drug' and the word 'use'. (I tested this
search: using the full quotes I had 298 results; without the full
quotes there were 1130 results.)

Using these advanced search options has the advantage of letting
you search using your favorite search engine, with the display
options you prefer (as Kae points out, perhaps with one or two lines
of the Web page). You can also set eg language preferences.

By the way, most search engines allow you to put 10 terms in your
search string and the more terms you put in, the better your search
results will be.

I hope this is useful!

Libby Levison
MPH, BU School of Public Health
PhD, Computer Science
libby@theplateau.com or llevison@bu.edu

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