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search tips

If you have too few results:

• Make sure to use the correct spelling.
• Use fewer search keywords.
• Use shorter search words and split words.
• Browse the categories instead of searching.

If you have too many results:

• Use more search keywords.
• Use specific keywords.
• Use the product and manufacturer pull downs.
• Browse the categories instead of searching.

To make your search more efficient, you can look for a single word or phrases in the product description. Or, use the tips below to refine your search to find more specific results.

simple keyword search

When you type one or more words, the search engine returns all the products that contain all the words specified in the search. Some words are equivalent to other words, and searching for one word returns results for the other, as well. For example, if you search for the word “ms”, the search engine returns all the products that contain the words “ms” or “microsoft”. In simple keyword searches, any non-alphanumeric characters are ignored by the search engine, except for slashes (/) and dashes (-).

phrase search

If you want to search for an exact phrase, enclose this phrase in double quotation marks. For example, without quotation marks, if you search for Microsoft office, the search server returns all the products that have the word Microsoft and Office, whether they are next each other or not. But searching for “Microsoft Office” returns only the products that have the word Microsoft followed directly by the word Office, exactly as it appears in the search expression.

boolean (logical) search

You can use logical operators, like AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR, in your search providing that you enclose your search criteria by double quotation marks. The following examples illustrate how the logical operators are used in the search. You must enclose the Boolean expression with double quotes.

AND
If two or more words are combined together with AND, then all of them must occur in the product information for the product to return in the search results. For example, if you want find all the mouse products that support USB, then you can search for all the products that have both the word “Mouse” and “USB” at the same time by typing the following criteria: “Mouse AND USB”

OR
If two or more words are combined together with the OR operator, then either one of the words may be contained in the product information for the product to appear in the search results. For example, if you want to search for all the products that have either the word “mouse” or “keyboard” in them, then you can type the following query: “Mouse OR Keyboard”

NOT
When you append the NOT operator to the beginning of a word, the search engine returns all the products that don’t contain that word in their index. For example, if you want to search for the word “Office” without the word “Microsoft”, then you can type the following criteria: “Office AND NOT Microsoft”Proximity Search

NEAR
Combine two words with NEAR to find all products that have these two words within 10 words apart from each other. The following query, for example, returns all the product that have the word X within 10 words of the word Y. Such as: “printer NEAR ink”. You must enclose the proximity expression with double quotes.

wildcard search

You can use the asterisk (*), double-asterisk (**), and the question mark (?) wildcard characters to match any character in a word. When you use a wildcard character in a search expression, the wildcard represents one or more characters in its position. Wild card characters can be used in words that have at least three consecutive characters before the wildcard. This feature prevents users from running queries that are too generic. These queries tend to return a large number of products, most of which are irrelevant. A word cannot start with a wildcard character; wildcards can be used only in the middle or at the end of the word.

The single asterisk (*) wildcard matches up to 5 characters. For example, the query “prin*” finds the word “printer”, “printed”, “printing”, etc. The double-asterisk (**) wildcard character is more flexible then the single asterisk because it can represent any number of characters. For example, searching for “rem**” returns “removable”, “remote”, etc.

You must enclose the wildcard expression with double quotes.

combined search

You can combine all of the above features to produce more sophisticated searches. For example, if you want to find all the products that contain the word “Microsoft” within 10 words of the word “Office” and that doesn’t contain the word “upgrade”, you can supply the following search expression:“microsoft near office and not upgrade”
You must enclose the combined expression with double quotes.