HELP & TIPS

Using SI.com Site Search and Web Search

To search SI.com, enter your keyword/s at the top of this or any SI.com page. To search any other CNN-family site, click on a link below:

Search CNN.com | Search Money.com

SEARCH BASICS

To enter a query, select either the "web" or "site" radio button. If you would like to search the entire web, select "web." If you would like to refine your search to query only SI.com, select "site." Then, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'SEARCH' button for a list of relevant results. The search only returns web pages or stories that contain all the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered. SI.com's site search is designed to be simple and easy for our users. If you don't find your search term right away, use the tips to try to refine your search.

The more words you type in, the more specific the results will be.

Put double-quotes around phrases that you want to find. For example, if you're searching for the specific phrase Tiger Woods, type in "Eldrick Tiger Woods". Always double-check your spelling if no results are returned. If no results are returned, review the terms that you entered to make sure that you did not mispell any terms. If you did, correct the spelling and try your search again. Only documents containing all of the words in the query will be returned. If you are looking for a specific item, type several words that will definitely be included in that document. For example, if you're looking for something less specific, just type in "golf" and you'll get more matches. There is no need to include "and" between terms.

Automatic Exclusion of Common Words

Common words and characters such as "where" and "how" are ignored, as well as certain single digits and letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include this by conducting a phrase search, which simply means putting quotation marks around two or more words. Common words in a phrase search (e.g., "where are you") are included in the search. For example, to search for Star Wars, Episode I, use: "Star Wars Episode I".

Capitalization

Searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "michael jordan", "Michael Jordan", and "MiChAeL JoRdAn" will all return the same results.

Select words or phrases that are descriptive

Think about how you would describe the perfect story or resource for your search. If you want information about St. Louis Rams Quarterback Kurt Warner , type in exactly that - "St. Louis Rams Quarterback Kurt Warner" (remember to use double-quotes).

Try word variations

Enter in variants of the search word, such as synonyms or the plural forms of a word. For example, enter "college" in place of "university." Try using conjunctions to refine your search.

"+" searches

Common words and characters such as "where" and "how" are ignored, as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a space before the "+" sign). For example, to search for Star Wars Episode I, use "Star Wars Episode +I" (with or without the quotation marks).

"-" searches

Sometimes what you're searching for has more than one meaning; "bass" can refer to fishing or music. You can exclude a word from your search by putting a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of the term you want to avoid (Be sure to include a space before the minus sign). For example, to find web pages about bass that do not contain the word "music", type: "bass -music"

Domain Restrict

If you know the website you want to search but aren't sure where the information is located within the site, you can search only that domain. Do this by entering what you're looking for followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name. For example, to find stories about George Bush on CNN.com, enter: "George Bush site:www.cnn.com"

SITE SEARCH

Search results are returned sorted by relevance first, then secondarily sorted by date. If your search is time or date-sensitive, try clicking on the link that says "sort results by date" to pull up older documents that may be more relevant.

Try word variations

If you are having difficulties finding your search terms, try using either the "AND", "OR", and/or the "()" conjunctions. For example, to search for either Robby Gordon or Jeff Gordon, enter "Robby AND (Gordon OR Jeff)."