Searching for Phrases: How to Avoid Keywords

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around how to effectively search for specific phrases, particularly in the context of searching for "Principles of Relativity Physics" on various search engines, including Google and the Physics Forums site. Participants explore the nuances of using quotation marks and the limitations of different search engines.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant inquires about searching for a phrase rather than keywords.
  • Several participants suggest using quotation marks to indicate a phrase in searches.
  • Another participant reports that using quotes returned results without the exact phrase, raising questions about the effectiveness of this method.
  • Concerns are expressed regarding the performance of search engines like Bing compared to Google, particularly in returning exact phrase matches.
  • A participant points out a grammatical issue with the phrase "Principles of Relativity Physics," suggesting a correction to "Principles of Relativistic Physics."
  • Participants discuss using Google to search specifically within the Physics Forums site to avoid delays in search results.
  • There is a mention that the built-in search engine on Physics Forums is inadequate compared to Google, and that Boolean searching is limited to gold members.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the use of quotation marks for phrase searching, but there are differing experiences regarding the effectiveness of this method across different search engines. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best practices for searching within the Physics Forums site.

Contextual Notes

Limitations noted include the performance variability of different search engines and the grammatical considerations affecting search results.

jason12345
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How do I search for a phrase like "Principles of Relativity Physics" rather than it being interpretd as a number of keywords?

Thanks
 
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Just as you have done. Put '' '' marks to indicate a phrase.
 
Alfi said:
Just as you have done. Put '' '' marks to indicate a phrase.

"principles of relativity physics" returns results without the phrase in it.
 
jason12345 said:
"principles of relativity physics" returns results without the phrase in it.

Really? I just typed in "principles of relativity physics" (with the quotes) and the first 4 pages were all entries with only the phrase "principles of relativity physics" in it.

Are you using Google? (though it shouldn't matter, quotes are the standard operator for this).
 
Inferior search engines like MS Live (now rebranded 'Bing') will not always return pages that match the exact phrase even when quote marks are used.

Also, when searching for an exact phrase it helps to choose one which conforms to standard grammar conventions in that language. In the phrase:

"Principles of Relativity Physics"

The word "relativity" is incorrectly used as an adjective, while in english this word always is a noun. One correction could be:

"Principles of Relativistic Physics"
 
You can go to Google and use these for searching this site alone:
Code: 
"Principles of Relativity Physics" site:physicsforums.com

Code: 
"Principles of Relativistic Physics" site:physicsforums.com
And also, this way you don't have to wait 60 secs after each search.
 
OAQfirst said:
You can go to Google and use these for searching this site alone:
Code: 
"Principles of Relativity Physics" site:physicsforums.com

Code: 
"Principles of Relativistic Physics" site:physicsforums.com
And also, this way you don't have to wait 60 secs after each search.

Hey thanks, that's a great tip. It works using Google to search physicsforums, but the search engine on physicsforums doesn't search the phrase for me.
 
jason12345 said:
Hey thanks, that's a great tip. It works using Google to search physicsforums, but the search engine on physicsforums doesn't search the phrase for me.

The inbuilt search engine here at PF is pretty lousy; google is normally a lot better. Also note that Boolean searching is only available to gold members.
 

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