[REARCH-11297] - Add escaping colons to search tips page
By default, if multiple search terms are entered together, the search engine will find all of the search terms within about 20 seconds of each other. The search will include closed-captioning data as well as program titles and descriptions and tags that have been added by users.
For example, searching for: UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONwill return results in which the words "united," "states," "presidential" and "election" all occur within about 20 seconds.
This page lists other ways to combine search terms in order to refine and filter search results.
Basic Search These are basic tools for combining search terms.
In order to
Use the syntax
Example
Search for multiple terms occurring together, or either separately.
OR
Searching for:
SENATE OR CONGRESS
will find the word "Senate" or "Congress,"
Exclude results containing certain terms
NOT or -(minus sign)
Searching for
APPLE MACBOOK -IPHONE or
APPLE MACBOOK NOT IPHONE
will find the words "Apple" and "iPod" only where they appear without the word "iPhone."
Search for an exact sequence of words
" " (quotation marks)
Searching for
"PARIS HILTON"
will find only results in which the phrase "Paris Hilton" appears exactly as in the quotation marks, and not mentions of "Paris" or "Hilton" alone, or results such as "the Hilton in Paris"
Group words together in a search
( ) (Parentheses)
Searching for
HOUSTON (ROCKETS OR ASTROS)
will find "Houston" together with "Rockets," or "Houston" together with "Astros,".
SEARCH FILTERS
These operators can be used with search terms to filter search results using metadata. By default, searches in the Link client will search closed-captioning data (Text), Title, and Description.
In order to
Use the syntax
Example
Filter by date or date range
DATE:
Dates must be entered as a month/day or as month/day/year.
Terms can be entered as date or as a time period. Allowed time period terms are:
Searching for TRUMP FOLDER:"Recorded TV" will find mentions of the name "Trump" in the folder Recorded TV
Other Search Operators
These operators provide a variety of different functions that can help you refine your search and locate hard-to-find results.
In order to
Use the syntax
Example
Search tags that have been entered by users
TAG:
Searching for
TAG:"jimmy fallon"
Will return results that include the tag "jimmy fallon"
Search by prefix ("wildcard" search)
* (asterisk)
An asterisk represents any number of unknown characters. This is known as a "wildcard" search.
A wildcard cannot be used as the first character of a search term.
Searching for
ENGL*
will return results for "English," "England," etc.
Searching for
CITY OF *
will return no results.
Search for similar sounding words (useful for finding words with alternate spellings, or words that are frequently misspelled)
~ (tilde)
A tilde searches for words that are similar, but not identical, to the search term. This is known as "fuzzy" search.
This operator can be fine-tuned with a number between 0 and 1 to find results that are less or more similar to the term. Numbers closer to 1 will find more similar results. When no number is entered, the term will be searched with a value of 0.5.
Searching for
JOHN~
can be used to find the name "John" together with alternate spellings like "Jon."
Searching for
ENVIRONMENT~
will find the word "environment" along with misspellings like "envrioment" or "environemnt"
Searching for
ENVIRONMENT~0.8
will find results closer to the actual term than ENVIRONMENT~0.4.
Find keywords that occur within a specified proximity of each other
" "~(number of words)
Entering a phrase enclosed within quotation marks and followed by a tilde (~) and a number will search for the words in the phrase within that distance (in words) of each other. By default, when two or more search terms are entered, the search engine will search for them as far apart as possible (about 20 seconds).
Searching for
"SENATOR CLINTON"~10
will find the words "Senator" and "Clinton" within 10 words of each other.
Restrict results to closed captioning data
TEXT:
Will search only within closed-captioning data, not program title or description. This can be useful when searching for mentions of search terms that are likely to appear in titles or descriptions, such as mentions of actors, TV personalities or TV shows.
Searching for
TEXT:"The Daily Show"
will return mentions of the phrase "The Daily Show" in closed-captioning data, but not programs titled The Daily Show