This article provides advice and techniques on how to ensure relevant search results when using Yahoo! Search.

Try using the following guidelines when searching on Yahoo! Search to improve your results:

1. Use specific keywords to describe exactly what you're looking for. For example:
   
   • Try 19th century chairs instead of old furniture.
   • Use digital camera reviews instead of electronics.
   • Watch for words with more than one meaning. If you're looking for information on modeling, make sure you specify fashion modeling or clay modeling or mathematical modeling.

2. Know when to require or exclude words. You can indicate words that must be in each search result or words that cannot be in each search result:
   
   • To require words, type + in front of each word that must be in the search results. If you want to see pages about health issues surrounding blackberries, and you mean the BlackBerry hand-held device, search for blackberry health +device.
   • To exclude words, type - in front of each word that cannot be in the search results. If you want to see pages about health issues around blackberries with no mention of the hand-held device, search for blackberries health -device.

3. Know how and when to search for exact phrases. To search for an exact phrase, put quotation marks around two or more words. For example, a search for "to be or not to be" returns only results containing the exact phrase inside the quotation marks.

4. Know how to perform multiple searches simultaneously. If you're equally interested in two or more alternatives, use OR in capital letters. For example, if you are interested in seeing results for both kayaking and biking in New Zealand, search for new zealand kayaking OR biking.

5. Focus the types of results to return. Click the links over the "Search" box to limit your search specifically to images, video, news, answers, or other search types.

6. Take advantage of Search Direct suggestions. If other people using Yahoo! Search have performed searches similar to yours, search suggestions will appear under the "Search" box. Click a suggestion to use it for your search. You can learn more about Search Direct in the help article, "What is Search Direct?".

7. Save time with Yahoo! Shortcuts. Yahoo! Shortcuts are keywords and symbols that you use to get specialized answers right on your search results page. You can save time by using Yahoo! Shortcuts to locate specific details such as flight information and package tracking status.  To learn more about using Yahoo! Shortcuts, visit the help article, "Using Yahoo! Shortcuts."

8. Use Search Meta Words. Entering the following keywords into the "Search" box returns special results:
   • site: - finds all documents within a particular domain and all its subdomains. Ex: site:yahoo.com
   • url: - finds a specific document in our index. Ex: url:http://edit.autos.yahoo.com/repair/tree/0.html
   • intitle: - finds a specific keyword as part of the indexed titles. Ex: intitle:Bulgarian