Geotrend supports the use of a number of Boolean operators.
The main interest of a better understanding of Boolean operators is to understand the logic of searching in any database. It is a question of nuancing the precision of the search that a filter would not allow.
Why use them?
First, Geotrend uses your search including Boolean operators to collect all the information associated with this domain. In a second step, Geotrend's Artificial Intelligence uses your query (text and Boolean operators) to determine the relevance of each article and to propose only those that are related to your topic. This limits the noise in your document searches and leaves room for information analysis without having to sort each piece of data.
Which Boolean operators for Geotrend?
Geotrend allows you to perform document searches on both broad subjects and very specific domains. The solution is able to handle a large number of different Boolean operators. During the information gathering phase, Geotrend is subject to the rules that apply to search engines. This implies a significant importance of the order of the terms when writing a query, as the most important ones must be placed upstream. Indeed, search engines concentrate their efforts on the first expressions of a query. It is therefore more relevant to include specific keywords in a search upstream of more generic keywords. This type of keyword ordering will allow Geotrend to erase the noise more easily, while collecting more precise information on the main subject of the search.
We also advise you not to use too many different terms in your document search. A maximum of 10 keywords allows you to access quality information, as Geotrend's Artificial Intelligence searches for all existing synonyms. Searching for too many terms in a single query will decrease the quality of your search since the information collection will be done on several themes and terms simultaneously. In addition, the terms entered at the end of the query will be less well considered by the tools than those at the beginning.
What are the main Booleans processed by the platform?
- AND to search for two terms in correlation
- OR to search for two terms separately
- AROUND() to search two terms close to each other
- - to exclude a term from the search
- Quotation marks to search for an exact term
- intitle: to search for a keyword or an exact expression within the title of the articles
- site: to focus the search on a particular domain name
- filetype: to search for documents based on their file.
Brackets are allowed by the platform and will allow to distribute the search terms. The brackets will allow me not to write twice the continuation of my search and distribute the keywords within it.
How to check your query before launching it?
If you want to make sure that your search is relevant, you can choose to launch it first on your usual search engine. If the results of the first pages meet your expectations in terms of information collected, you can be confident when you launch your search in Geotrend. This manipulation will also give you an indication of how many documents may be related to your topic. For example, if Google returns a hundred results, Geotrend's Artificial Intelligence will have little data to analyze. On the other hand, if Google gives you more than a million results, Geotrend will select the most relevant information for you. It is possible that at this point, your search is too broad and the information obtained will be too generic for your needs.