| Making Queries |
| We utilize Excite for Web Servers (“EWS”) technology
to perform searchs on our website. EWS gives web users access
to a sophisticated concept-based searching engine. But even though the
search engine is advanced, users can form queries without using a complicated
query language. This page will help you to choose the queries that will
give you the best results. |
|
| Query Basics |
| A query is simply a description of an information need.
Unlike Boolean systems that search for just those documents containing
all the words in your query, Excite for Web Servers will search for documents
that are a best match for the words in your query. Excite for Web Servers
will also search for documents that are about the same concepts that your
query describes, so sometimes Excite for Web Servers will bring back articles
that don’t mention any of the words in your original query. |
| What this means is that your query—the description of
your information need—can be as detailed as you like. Don’t worry about
providing too many words; the more words, the better. Additional words
in your query will help Excite for Web Servers figure out what concepts
you’re really interested in. On the other hand, Excite for Web Servers
will do a pretty good job of figuring out what documents are interesting
to you even if your query is vague. |
| For example, let’s say you’re searching a web site for
documents about customer support for the Widget2000 product you’re using.
A good starting point would be customer support for the Widget2000. If
you have a question about a particular feature of the Widget2000, for example
the Blurfl upgrade package, you might choose a query like customer support
for the Blurfl upgrade package of the Widget2000 Even if there are no documents
that are actually about the Blurfl upgrade, Excite for Web Servers will
still show you documents about Widget2000 customer support. |
|
| Advanced Query Tips |
| Here are some suggestions for getting the best results out of Excite
for Web Servers. |
|
| Only use words that
are relevant to your query |
| If you’re looking for documents about the Widget2000,
don’t enter a query like “Find me all documents about the Widget2000”.
EWS considers all the words in your query to be part of your information
need, so queries like the previous example will find all documents about
finding all documents about the Widget2000, which may not be exactly what
you want. |
|
| Specify multiple forms
of the same phrases |
| EWS distinguishes between hyphenated and un-hyphenated
words. So, sometimes it might be necessary to explicitly say that you want
both versions, for example “CDROM CD-ROM”. Excite for Web Servers will
try to figure out that CDROM and CD-ROM are the same, but it never hurts
to explicitly specify multiple forms. |
|
| Common words are ignored |
| EWS doesn’t index common words like a, and, or the. Consequently,
those words in your query will be ignored. EWS also
ignores numbers; however, it can find strings that happen to contain a
number, for example 3Com. |
