To get good results from a basic search

When you get too many search results, you need to narrow your search criteria. When you get too few, you need to broaden your criteria.

To narrow a search:

• Use more search words. You can type up to 150 characters in the search box.
• Use precise wording that clearly defines what you're looking for.
• Check your spelling. MSN Search fixes many misspelled words, but if your results are not accurate, your spelling might be wrong.
• Use synonyms. If you do not get relevant results, use other words to describe what you want.

To broaden a search:

• Use more general search words. For example, try using generic product names instead of specific product names.

Note

In general, use lowercase letters when typing search words. Lowercase words will match any case. Also, use specific words for your search, not long questionlike combinations of words.

To modify the search results page

You can change the search results page to display fewer or more sites per page and/or to display only page titles without their summaries.

• On the Search home page, click Advanced Search, and then type your search words in the Search the Web for box.
• To change the number of results per page, click a number on the Results per page list.
• To view only page titles without summaries, clear the Show result summaries check box.

Advanced Search

To refine how your search words are used

1. On the Search Home page, click Advanced Search, and then type your search words in the Search the Web for box.
2. On the Find list, choose an option:

any of the words returns pages that contain at least one of the words, but not necessarily all of them

.all the words returns pages that contain at least one occurrence of every word, but not necessarily in the order you typed them.

words in title returns pages whose titles contain your search words.

the exact phrase returns pages that contain your search phrase with no words in between (except for common words like the, and, a, an, and of).

Boolean phrase interprets your search according to the Boolean operators you use (AND, OR, and AND NOT—note that they need to be capitalized).