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Have you ever searched for a topic only to find your search engine presents you with millions of Web sites? Boolean logical is an easy way to help you improve the way you search the Net.

Boolean logic quite simply refers to the logical relationship among search terms and consists of three logical operators:

• OR
• AND
• NOT

What this means to you is searching can be easy!

OR

OR logic is for thorough searches using similar words. OR logic collates results finding all sites that contain one term, the other term, or both.

The illustration above is a search for information about jandals. In this search, we will retrieve web sites in which AT LEAST ONE of the search terms is found.

• the shaded circle with the word jandals represents all the sites found that contain the word jandals
• the shaded circle with the word thongs represents all the sites found that contain the word thongs
• the shaded overlap area represents all the records containing both "jandals" and "thongs"

OR logic is most commonly used to search for synonymous terms or concepts. Here is an example of how OR logic works when you use a search engine:

The more terms or concepts you apply to the OR logic, the more sites you will find.

AND

AND logic is great for specific searches linking key words. AND logic will only find Web sites that contain all search terms entered.

The illustration above is a search for information on the relationship between painting and landscape.

In this search, we will retrieve web sites in which both of the search terms are found.

• the shaded area overlapping the two circles represents all sites found that contain both the word "painting" and the word "landscape"
• we do not retrieve any sites containing only "painting" or only "landscape"

Here is an example of how AND logic works using a search engine:

The more search terms you include, the fewer results you get.

NOT

NOT logic is for specific searches filtering by key words. NOT logic will find sites in which only ONE of the search terms is found.

The illustration above is a search for information about rugby, but without getting information on rugby league.

• the shaded area with the word rugby represents all the sites that contain the word "rugby"
• No sites are displayed where the "league" appears, even if the word "rugby" is found on the site.

Example of NOT logic when using a search engine:

Have fun and happy searching!