Please Note, that place names are spelled in full, so Pennsylvania is spelled as such and not shortened to Pa. Similarly military ranks are spelled in full too. Captain, not Capt. Where possible all words are spelled in full. Please also note that this site is run from the UK, therefore dates are written for example as 23 January 1999 etc. not January 23, 1999 or 1 23 99 or 1 Jan, 99 or any other combination. Also note that certain words will only be spelled the English way, so color is colour, tire is tyre etc.
Can't find what you're looking for? Well don't despair, sometimes it just takes a few tries to get it right. Think of some different words to use.
Spelling.
Making sure your search terms are spelled correctly will go along way to making sure you find what you are looking for. The search engine will attempt to find words that sound similar to your search terms, but it is best to spell your search terms correctly to begin with.
Multiple Words.
Use multiple words when performing your search. More words for a search will return more refined results than a search from a single word. Be specific to narrow your search. Use specific words instead of general ones. For example, a search for railway engine will return fewer and more targeted listings than a search for engine. Note: enclose railway engine in quote marks.
Similar Words.
The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant results will be to the words that you are searching for. For example you could use locomotive or train, if you searched for railway engine.
Capital Letters.
Use capital letters when you are looking for proper nouns such as the name of a person or place. For example, Tom Jones or Buckingham Palace. Lowercase words will always match any words of any case.
Quotation marks around phrases.
Use quotation marks to find words that must appear adjacent to each other. For example, a search for "Ford Capri" within quotes rather than just Ford Capri, will find items containing both words next to each other rather than just Ford or just Capri.
Use punctuation only when required.
If it isn't necessary, then leave it out. For example, you'll be successful if you search for Elvis t-shirt (the correct punctuation with a hyphen) or Elvis tee shirt (correct wording without a hyphen). If you try both searches, you will get a complete listing of everything available. Don't use Elvis: t-shirt (this is an unnecessary colon) or Elvis tee-shirt (incorrect use of a hyphen).
Boolean plus (+) or minus (-) operators.
Precede a search term or phrase with a plus (+) sign to indicate it must appear in a search result. Precede a search term with a minus (-) sign to indicate an undesirable search term or phrase that must not appear in a search result. For example, searching for +dogs -collie will return results that are about dogs, but not about collies.
Field searches.
Field searches allow you to search for words that appear in a specific part of a document such as the body text (body:), title text (title:), alt text (alt:), meta description (desc:), meta keywords (keys:) or URL (url:). The field name should include the colon and precede the search word or phrase with no spaces between them. For example, searching for title:presidents will find pages with presidents in the title of the page.
Specifying a date an event happened.
For example, if you're looking for books published in the 1950s, enter books 195* The asterisk is a wildcard search and can be used in other ways. You can also use a phrase like 1964 +”Beatles”, this will find all occurrences of 1964 that mention the Beatles. See the next tip below.
Use a wildcard for multiple endings.
By typing an * (asterisk symbol) at the end of a word, you can search for items with multiple endings. For example: Beatles man* would return items such as Beatles manager, Beatles music mania, Beatles Nowhere Man, etc. These examples should be enclosed within quote marks.
Special Symbols.
* (asterisk symbol) - Wild Card. Use * (asterisk symbol) for a wild card when you only know part of a word. For example: star* would return items such as Star Wars, stargazing, stars, and Star Trek.
+ (plus symbol) - Required Words. Use + (plus symbol) before a word if the word must appear in the area you are searching. For example: To find a rocking chair with the word antique in the title, enter: rocking chair +antique.
- (minus symbol) - Exclude Words. Use - (minus symbol) to exclude any word you do not want to include. For example: To find a rocking chair without antique in the title, enter (include space after rocking chair): rocking chair -antique. For example: To find a Barbie without the words Ken or Skipper in the title, enter (include a space after Barbie): Barbie - (Ken,Skipper).
Trivia
Trivia - petty details or considerations, matters or things that are very unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential; trifles; trivialities.
Trivial - of very little importance or value; insignificant: "Don't bother me with trivial matters." Trivially - unimportant, nugatory, slight, immaterial, inconsequential, frivolous, trifling.