Searching with Ultraseek

Simple and Advanced searches
Ultraseek provides users with the capability of running simple and advanced (or assisted) searches.
The simple search presents the user with one search field, where the user can use query options such as +, -, or link:. The advanced search page assists the user with formatting a query through a menu-driven form.

Refining a search
Once you have run a search, you refine it by adding more search terms, or searching the results of your previous search. This can be very useful if your first search attempt returns many results, and you think of terms by which to narrow the search.

Tips on searching MIT
MIT has roughly 900 web servers, with over one million pages. One of MIT's esteemed librarians likens searching to wandering around looking for something you've lost. If you look for it blindly, you may eventually find it. However, if you look for what is lost with some "smart plan", you are more likely to find it on the first try.

For that reason, here are some tips on how to search MIT.

• Most administrative departments are on web.mit.edu, so you may want to search web.mit.edu first for the department you are looking for.
• If you find that your search returns a lot of personal pages that mention a term once, you might have better search results from searching for the words in the title from the Advanced Search page.

The should, must and not contain selection changes the ranking of the terms in the query, e.g. must (+) ranks highest, not (-) ranks the terms lowest. These are most useful on the advanced page, where you would usually enter text in more than one box.

"Should" is useful when you're not completely sure about what you're looking for, and want more results to come back. For example, I remember hearing that the Infoseek head made a donation to MIT for a building. A search for must Infoseek, must donation, must building (+Infoseek, +donation, +building) has no results. A search for must Infoseek, should donation, should building (Infoseek, donation, building) brings the right article ("Kirsch makes $2.5m pledge") up on the first try.