Diana Botluk , author of The Legal List: Research on the Internet , has written extensively about online legal research. Diana was named one of the top online legal researchers in T.R. Halvorson’s Law of the Super Searchers: The Online Secrets of Top Legal Researchers (CyberAge Books, 2000). With over 20 years of experience in online research, she has designed and delivered many special workshops and demonstrations in legal research and online resources for a variety of continuing legal education and continuing library education organizations. Diana earned her J.D. in 1984 from Catholic University Law School .
This chart is part of Diana Botluk’s Power Searching on the Web seminar. The Power Searching seminar outline is located at http://websearchschool.com/powersearching .
© 2004 Diana Botluk – Please contact Diana for permission to use this material.
Searching Features
Inclusive Terms
Default
Advanced: All of the Words
Default
and
+
Advanced: All the Words
Default
Advanced: All the Words
Default
Advanced: All of the Words
Default
Default
Advanced: Must
Default
WiseSearch: All
Default
Advanced: All
Alternative Terms
OR
Advanced:
or
Any on drop down box
OR
Advanced:
Any on drop down box
OR in Boolean box
OR
Advanced: At Least One
OR
Advanced: Any of the Words
OR
OR
not supported
OR
Advanced: Any of the Words
Phrases
Quotes
Advanced: phrase on drop down box
Quotes
Advanced:
phrase
Quotes
Advanced:
phrase
Quotes
Advanced: Exact Phrase
Quotes
Advanced: Exact Phrase
Find this Phrase checkbox
Quotes
WiseSearch: Exact Phrase
Quotes
Advanced: Exact Phrase
Exclusion
– (minus sign)
Advanced:
andnot
not include on drop down box (Filters)
– (minus sign)
NOT
Advanced: NOT in Boolean box
– (minus sign)
Advanced:
without
– (minus sign)
Advanced:
None of the Words
Advanced: AND NOT when using a Boolean expression
– (minus sign)
Advanced: must not
– (minus sign)
WiseSearch: without
Advanced: none
Truncation
no
Automatic stemming in some instances
no
Enable word stemming on advanced pg
no
no
no
Search by Levels
yes
no
yes
yes
no
only with suggested refinements
no
no
Restrictors (Search by Fields)
language, domain, IP address,
file format, date.
Will support the following keyword prefixes:
site:
url:
link:
title:
date, file type, location
Will support the following prefixes:
domain:
host:
link:
title:
url:
domain, language, date, page level, file format, occurences
Supports the following prefixes:
intitle:
allintitle:
site:
inurl:
filetype:
Putting ~ before a word searches for synonyms
Search for numeric range by placing two periods between numbers
domain, language, title, url
region, language, domain, page level, file type, media type
title, url, language, domain, region, date
Will support the following prefixes:
intitle:
inurl:
geoloc:
site:
beforedate:
afterdate:
betweendate:
no
date, site, domain, country, language, file format
Results Display Features
Integrated
Directory Results
no
Tab at top
not integrated
not integrated
a few featured sites, depending on search
no, but provides suggested sites for your search
sort of – categories appear with results, but these don’t lead to a directory, just suggested searches with abridged results
yes
Directory Provided by:
Open Directory
Open Directory
Open Directory
MSN
Yahoo
Customized
Customize
Settings
Preferences
only slightly using Advanced
My Preferences
slightly in Preferences
Set Preferences
Preferences
Clustered/ Compressed
yes
yes
yes
not apparent
Can be toggled on Advanced Search page
yes
yes
yes
Suggested Searches/ Refinements
no
yes
no
yes – Narrow Your Search
no
yes
WiseGuide
yes – Related directly under search box
Similar Searches
no
no
yes – Similar Pages
no
no
no
no
no
Other Notable Features
Use Customize Preferences to personalize a wide variety of features
Translates results
Cached results
Will open results in second window if preferences are set that way
Translates results
Will open results in a second window if preferences are set that way
Sneak-a-Peek opens a small box with results page right in the middle of results list
Will open results in second window
Cached results