Web search engines like Bing continually search the Internet for new documents and add them to their database. The Web is a very large information resource consisting of millions and millions of documents, but many of these documents contain information which you do not want e.g.

 

Basic tips for searching

Tip 1 - To exclude words, use a  -

if you do not want the word in the document, add a -

e.g.  This is the way that you would write the search keywords in the search box on the search engine website: (notice the space after each word)

Mandela marriage Graca -Winnie

   

Tip 2 - If there is more than one word in the phrase, use "quotation marks"

This applies if the words for which you are searching are

e.g. (sub-tip: use capitals if the words are proper names)

"Nelson Mandela""Graca Machel" -"Winnie Mandela"

"outcomes-based education""South Africa" -Australia -"United States"

    

 

For more tips on a greater variety of search engines, we recommend the Findspot search site.