Learn how to use boolean search to your favor and find better results from your research.
The search bar from the Videos tabs present throughout Winnin Insights uses boolean search. This means that when searching for something you can combine different search terms with operators to arrive at specific results.To start searching it's important to understand what are search terms:
check
- brings results that have the word check on the title or tags of the video.
"check-in"
- brings results that have the word check-in on the title or tags of the video.
"Check it out"
- brings results that have the phrase check it out on the title or tags of the video.
Note: Using the quotation marks is necessary when using compound words or phrases on the search term in order to get results with the word or phrase exactly like what's being searched for.
Now for the operators. They are: " ", ( ), OR, AND e NOT.
OR: This operator offers flexible inclusion of other search terms, bringing results that have either one search term or the other, or both, and so it increases the number of results.
AND: This operator offers addition of other search terms, bringing results that have both of the search terms, and so it decreases the number of results.
NOT: This operator offers exclusion of other search terms, not bringing results with those search terms, and so it filters and decreases the number of results.
" " : In cases when the search term is composed by more than one word or a hyphenated compound word, the quotation marks should be used to bring results exactly like the search terms chosen.
( ): The parentheses are used to group search terms together, and used in addition to the other operators can bring more complexity to the search, and so more specific results.
Now let's move on to some practical examples:
Let's say we want to look for content about the beer brand Corona. In the last months it has become a lot harder to look for content about this brand due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Search bar: corona OR “this is living”
In this case, our search will bring us all of the videos that contain the word "corona" OR the term "this is living", on its title or tags, regardless of the context in which these search terms are inserted in.
Search bar: (corona OR “this is living”) AND (cerveza OR beer)
In this case, our search will bring us all of the videos in which the word "corona" OR the term "this is living" appear alongside the words "cerveza" OR "beer". The results from this search will necessarily have at least one word from each group of search terms.
Search bar: (corona OR “this is living”) AND (cerveza OR beer) NOT (“virus” OR “pandemic”)
In this case, our search will bring the same result as our previous example minus all of the videos that contain the words "virus" OR "pandemic".
There are numerous possibilities of combinations that you can use to enrich and specify your research.
If you'd like to see a video about this article and the boolean search on Winnin Insights, click here.
If any doubts have remained about how to search for videos using boolean operators please contact our support team through cs@winnin.com or talk to your account manager directly :)