Search | Marlin Directory | A to Z Index | Departments
 |
Search Tips
To enter a query into Google, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the Enter key (or click on the Search button) for your list of relevant results.
Google uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. For instance, when Google analyzes a page, it looks at what those pages linking to that page have to say about it. Google also prefers pages in which your query terms are near each other.
Automatic "and" Queries
By default, Google only returns those pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. To restrict a search further, just include more terms.
"OR" Searches
Google supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use an uppercase OR between terms.
Stop Words
Google ignores common words and characters, known as stop words. Google automatically disregards such terms as "where" and "how," as well as certain single digits and single letters, because these terms rarely help narrow a search, and can slow down searching significantly.
Use the "+" sign to include stop words in your search. Be sure to include a space before the "+" sign. You can also include the "+" sign in phrase searches.
See your search terms in context
Each Google search result contains one or more excerpts from the web page, which shows how your search terms are used in context on that page. Your search terms are bolded so you can tell at a glance whether the result is a page you want to visit.
Stemming
To provide the most accurate results, Google does not use "stemming" or support "wildcard" searches. In other words, Google searches for exactly the words that you enter in the search box. Searching for "googl" or "googl*" will not yield "googler" or "googlin." If in doubt, try both forms: "airline" and "airlines," for instance.
Does capitalization matter?
Google searches are not case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "george washington", "George Washington", and "gEoRgE wAsHiNgToN" will all return the same results.