The next several pages will introduce you to search operators to help you narrow, refine, or thoughtfully widen your search. The first operator we'll introduce is the site: operator, which you can use to specify the top-level domain of the site you'd like to find.
As you watch, consider the following question:
- When are you likely to use the site: operator?
Here's an example of what this can look like in practice:
All of the search results above are from the New York Times, since we specified the nytimes.com domain. This can often be a more efficient way of searching within a particular publication.
TIPS:
- Remember what you learned on the top-level domains page about what top-level domains like .org and .gov can and can't tell us about a website's reliability.
- Filetype operator: You can also narrow search results by the kind of file you want using the filetype: operator. For example, if you know you want a pdf document, add filetype:pdf after your search terms. Other filetype extensions you could search for include .docx or .pptx. A full list is here.
- The site: and filetype: operators will NOT work if you add a space between the operator and the kind of site or file you're looking for. Search for site:.org instead of site: .org and filetype:.pptx instead of filetype: .pptx!
