Search Engine Tip: The “AND” Operator with a Punch

The following is a guest post by Moises Lopez, via Recruiting BlogSwap.

Moises is a 15+ year veteran in the recruitment field and is the National Sourcing Manager for PDS Technical Services. He is recognized for his expertise in sourcing methodologies and recruitment technologies, is a distinguished writer, a well versed public speaker, and a trainer in advanced sourcing methodologies. Moises blogs at The Sourcing Corner.

This post helps hone a skill even many otherwise sophisticated Internet surfers could stand to improve: advanced use of Google and other search engines for Internet research. Basic keyword searches are often remarkably effective, making us lazy about learning tricks that uncover even more useful information.

As an expert “sourcer,” Moises is paid to find potential passive candidates (people not actively looking for job opportunities), and going beyond the obvious on the Internet is his stock in trade. The tip below is potentially useful not just to recruiting sourcers hunting for job candidates, but to anyone engaging in focused Internet research.

There are some things that we use so regularly that we take them for granted. That is the case with some of the tools we use for internet research. Have you thought of what the PLUS sign does, for instance?

We all have used the “PLUS” ( + ) sign in our searches, right? In many search engines, it can be used as a substitute for the Boolean operator “AND.” Just like the “AND” operator, it finds pages that contain all search terms, but that is where the similarities end.

Here is the key difference: unlike “AND,” the “PLUS” sign returns only pages that have the keyword term immediately on the right side of the “PLUS” sign, making this term essential to your search. (Otherwise, the search engine may return pages that lack this term, but include others that are in the query.)

The use of the “PLUS” sign may also produce some unexpected effects. Using the “PLUS” sign directs the search engines to sidestep some of the programming boundaries. For instance, it causes characters or “stop words” or “noise words” that normally would be excluded from a search to be forced in as part of the searchable keywords.

I can hear you now! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? It means that keywords like “a,” “an,” “and,” “are,” “at,” “be,” etc., can be included as part of your search. Try running this query in yahoo (or whatever search engine you prefer):

Microsoft bites the apple

Now compare it to:

Microsoft bites +the apple

Isn’t it amazing? The “PLUS” sign is not the same as the “AND” operator, is it?

Another interesting difference between “AND” + is that it produces yet another variation in the algorithms. Try this simple query in Google:

resume develop vb

Now compare it to:

resume +develop vb

Did you notice the difference? What happened was that Google (as well as most other search engines nowadays) has an automatic stemming algorithm in place that allows for variations of keywords. In the case of the keyword “develop,” it searched for “develop,” “developer” and “development.”

Whenever you use the “PLUS” sign on a keyword, it turns off this automatic stemming feature of the search engine. In this example, it restricts results to those with “develop,” rather than the related words.

Next time you use the “PLUS” (+) sign in your queries, notice the differences. There are times when you may need the stemming feature, but isn’t it nice to be able to control when it is used?

For more information on refining Google searches, see “Advanced Search Made Easy,” ”
Advanced Operators,” and “Google Help: Cheat Sheet”

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

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