Proximity+Searching+C

=**__ Proximity Searching __**=

What is proximity searching?
 * Proximity searching is a technique that can be applied when using a search engine.
 * If **//keywords//** determine the words necessary to appear in a document, and if **//phrase searching//** requires that the exact order of words appear in a document, then **//proximity searching//** is a so-called mediator. It is the technique of telling your search engine **//how far apart//** a group of words should be from each other.
 * The words don’t necessarily have to appear as a phrase, but neither should they appear far apart from each other nor placed randomly (or unrelated) in a document.
 * Using techniques unique to each search engine, it is even possible to determine **//the number of words//** between the two keywords that you are searching for by adding **//specific words//** to your search (Goldman 2).

Examples:
 * I want to search for movies that feature both John Travolta and Nicolas Cage (Goldman 2).
 * The phrase that appears in the document wouldn’t exactly be worded as “John Travolta and Nicolas Cage both starred in…”; and so a **phrase search** wouldn’t be appropriate for the topic
 * A keyword search of “movie John Travolta Nicholas Cage” could bring up documents that included simply a list of actors; and so a **keyword search** wouldn’t be appropriate for the topic
 * A **proximity search** of “movie //NEAR// travolta cage” would bring up documents/websites that had all the concepts of movie, Travolta, and cage within a limited range(Goldman 2).

Efficiency:
 * It is efficient for carrying out searches, in different ways. In and advance search, the key words can be found on all the pages, but for a proximity search the words are the closest to the search results. Unlike keywords, in a proximity search, by adding a few expressions/ terms, we can get detailed information on the topic we are searching for. They narrow down our search further, and give precise and accurate information. It also helps by looking at other words which are the most accurate to the other. This makes it easy for us, since we don’t have to look around the page for a good article/ piece of information, and skim through every article.

EBSCO:
 * With EBSCO, the proximity search is able to function by the use of two letters. The use of the letter “W” followed by a number between two other keywords (exp: Keyword 1 W8 Keyword 2). EBSCO would then search for the 2 keywords within 8 words of each other, and in the order which has been placed (Evangel).


 * The use of the letter “N” followed by a number functions in almost the same way, except it disregards the order in which the keywords were placed. (exp. Keyword 1 N8 Keyword 2) EBSCO would search for the two keywords as long as they are within the specified amount of distance between the two keywords (Evangel).

  The first 3 results show the words Black Rainbow, but they are not remotely near each other.



The following 2 out of 3 results show the words Black and Raindbow close to each other now, within 3 words. The last result probably contains the words Black and Rainbow in the summary.



The following three results have shown the words Black and Rainbow, but in 2 out of 3 results, Rainbow comes before Black.

All screenshots are from: [] (and its searches)

United Streaming:

 * United Streaming uses Proximity Searching for the users convenience as well. United streaming has set it up so that[| Boolean]queries can eliminate certain search terms. Now, how does it all work? Aside from the other Boolean terms AND, NOT, OR, we will be focusing on the two terms relevant to Proximity Searching.


 * Basically all we need to do is place the following in the search box:

(Screenshot of Basic Search with "NEAR" usage from United Streaming)

OR

Placing this in between terms allows for an unordered proximity search, meaning the two words can be within a certain range of each other but the search engine will ignore the order of the words

(Screenshot zoom of search box with "NEAR" usage from United Streaming)

By doing this instead we would get a search that follows the order of the terms:

(Screenshot zoom of search box with "ONEAR" usage from United Streaming)

We can place this in the advanced search or even the basic search. The advanced search will allow us to narrow down our search even further.

(Screenshot of Advanced Search with "NEAR" usage from United Streaming) (Screenshot of Advanced Search with "ONEAR" usage from United Streaming)

(Screenshot of Search Results with "NEAR" from United Streaming)

The order of the terms give us numerous search results and we get lots of results that are irrelevant.

(Screenshot of Search Results with "ONEAR" from United Streaming)

Here we can see that the search results have been narrowed down as we specified that the words be ordered that way and results will be a bit more relevant, however not all results are necessarily what we are looking for. Narrowing it down however makes our troubles simplified.

ONEAR means that the words must be in the order that they are typed. NEAR means that the words can be placed in any order.
 * //Basically...//**

JSTOR:

 * JSTOR Supports limited proximity searching options. Instead of letting the user specify the number of words they want between the search terms, JSTOR provides 3 proximity searching options, to search for terms with no more than 5, 10, or 20 words in between them(JSTOR Administrators). To access the search options, you hover over the search tab on the top of the page, then click advanced search. On this page you can find the proximity search tools in the pull down menus next to the search textboxes. You can then enter in your terms and select which proximity search option best suits your search.





Google:

 * Google does not possess a feature that is explicitly called a “proximity search”. However, it has a feature called the wildcard search that makes use of asterisks (*) to replace words that one is not sure of. These word replacements can be used so that the search engine completes a name or title automatically if the searcher does not remember one or two of the words. However, it can also indicate for the search engine how many words should be placed in between keywords, if say, you want to have two words within one sentence or paragraph.


 * For example, if we want to search 'Leaning Tower of Pisa", we can also search "Leaning * * Pisa" and get almost identical results. Using these asterisks, we can effectively control how many words are in between two keywords that we search. In the example of Leaning Tower of Pisa, we have 2 words between "Leaning" and "Pisa".

For a second example, if we want to have "obama" and " election " in the same sentence/paragraph, we can search "obama * * * election" and most of the search results will come up with obama and election with three other words between them.

Worldbook Online:

 * World Book Online does not support proximity searching.

= WORKS CITED: =

Internet Tutorials. "Boolean Searching on the Internet." __Internet Tutorials__. 20 Sept. 2010. .

Evangel University Library St. "Innformation Sources." __Proximity Searching and Google Searching Hints__. Evangel University, Sept. 2010. 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

Goldman, Roy, Narayanan Shivakumar, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, and Hector Garcia-Molina. __Proximity Search in Databases__. Rep. San Francisco: Stanford University. Standford. 15 Sept. 2010. <[]>. Google Administrators. "More Search Help : Google Search Basics - Web Search Help." __Google__. 14 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

JSTOR Administrators. "Help." __JSTOR__. 20 Sept. 2010. . United Streaming. "New Search Tips." __United Streaming, Discovery Education__. 20 Sept. 2010. .