
  <h1 align="center"><b>Search</b></h1>
  <ul>
    <li><b><a href="#overview">Overview</a> </b> 
      <ul>
        <li><b><a href="#editors">Primarily Intended for Editors</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#update">Update Frequency</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#bias">Bias</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#category_names">Category Names Affecting Results</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#editable">Editable Search</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#blank">Blank Descriptions</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#field">Field Searches</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#roulette">Category Roulette</a></b></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li><b><a href="#simple">Simple Search</a></b> 
      <ul>
        <li><b><a href="#phrase">Phrase Search</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#defaults">Search Defaults</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#boolean">Boolean Search</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#wildcard">Wildcard Search</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#shorthand">Shorthand Search Terms</a></b></li>
        <li><b><a href="#complex">Complex Queries</a></b> </li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li><b><a href="#advanced">Advanced Search</a></b> 
      <ul>
        <li><b><a href="#restricting">Restricting by Category</a></b> </li>
        <li><b><a href="#cat_site">Searching Category Names or Site Names Only</a></b></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <h3><b><a name="overview"></a></b>Overview</h3>
  <blockquote> 
    <p>All category pages, both public-side and private-side, contain a search 
      box. The search feature allows editors to find specific entries in the directory, 
      along with the category in which they reside. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="editors"></a></b>Primarily Intended for Editors</h4>
    <p> The search function is not meant to be cutting-edge, or a competitor with 
      Google, so such comparisons are fruitless. The fact that your site does 
      not rank highly on DMOZ search is irrelevant and should not be a matter 
      of concern. As long as the feature enables editors to locate sites with 
      reasonable ease, it works. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="update"></a></b>Update Frequency</h4>
    <p> The search index is updated approximately fortnightly. This means that 
      it is entirely possible that the changes you have made in a category are 
      not returned as a result of a relevant search query. Please don't post in 
      the editor fora enquiring as to whether the index has been updated -- be 
      patient. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="bias"></a></b>Bias</h4>
    <p> Searches which are started outside the Adult/ hierarchy, and don't contain 
      explicit keywords will not return sites from Adult/ . Similarly, searches 
      started within the Kids and Teens hierarchy will only return results from 
      within K&T. Although it is due to change, currently searches started outside 
      of World/ are biased against World/, i.e. results for World/ categories 
      appear lower down in the results than results for non-World/ categories. 
    </p>
    <h4><b><a name="category_names"></a></b>Category Names Affecting Results</h4>
    <p> The search feature does not consider the words contained within the name 
      of a category in which listings reside. That is to say, that despite the 
      fact a category is named "Business and Economy" and contains a listing entitled 
      'Bob's Window Cleaning' -- with, for the sake of example, no description 
      -- a search on 'Window Cleaning Business' would not return this listing. 
    </p>
    <h4><b><a name="editable"></a></b>Editable Search</h4>
    <p> If you start a search from an edit-side page, or append '<code>&ebuttons=1</code>' 
      to the URL of a standard search query, there will be blue 'EDIT' buttons 
      opposite the returned sites. If you have editing permissions in the relevant 
      categories, these buttons allow you to edit the returned listings as you 
      would normally from a category page. </p>
    <p>For example: <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=star+trek&amp;ebuttons=1">http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=star+trek&ebuttons=1</a></p>
    <h4><b><a name="blank"></a></b>Blank Descriptions </h4>
    <p>The search function can be used to locate listings without descriptions, 
      which, as explained in <a href="/ddp/07002/">Sites: Describing</a>, 
      are prohibited. The query text is: <code>ExternalPage></code></p>
    <p>For example: <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=ExternalPage%3E">http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=ExternalPage%3E</a></p>
    <h4><b><a name="field"></a></b>Field Searches </h4>
    <p>If you prefix your query text with specific modifiers you can restrict 
      the search to specific fields. For example, the modifier '<code>u:</code>' 
      restricts the search to the URL field, so results are only returned if the 
      query text appears in a site's URL. Searches can be restricted to descriptions 
      using the '<code>d:</code>' modifier, and the '<code>t:</code>' modifier 
      is for site titles. Note: it is a known bug that the modifier is dropped 
      on the second page, and all subsequent pages, of results. </p>
    <p>For example: <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=u%3Anetscape">http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=u%3Anetscape</a></p>
    <h4><b><a name="roulette"></a></b>Category Roulette</h4>
    <p> A search with an empty search box will return four categories picked at 
      random from the Open Directory. i.e.: <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=">http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=</a></p>
  </blockquote>
  <h3><b><a name="simple"></a></b>Simple Search </h3>
  <blockquote> 
    <p>By default searches find entries that include all of the search terms. 
      Search results are ranked and displayed 25 sites at a time. The sites that 
      are displayed are grouped by their category. For example, a search on : 
      <code>C++</code> will return all the sites that have the word <code>C++</code> 
      in them. Searches with multiple terms will automatically insert an "<code>and</code>" 
      between all the terms, so that only sites with all of the search words in 
      them will be returned. For example, a search on <code>golf clubs</code> 
      will only return sites that have both <code>golf</code> and <code>clubs</code> 
      in the site's name and description. Sites on "tennis clubs" or "golf balls" 
      will not be displayed (unless they also mention golf and clubs).</p>
    <h4> <b><a name="phrase"></a>Phrase Search</b> </h4>
    <p>Sometimes the order of the search terms matters. Using phrase searching 
      can greatly reduce the number of sites that are matched by a search. For 
      example if you searched for: "<code>Tour de France</code>" You would only 
      get sites that had the three words: <code>tour</code>, <code>de</code> and 
      <code>France</code> in them in that order. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="defaults"></a></b>Search Defaults </h4>
    <p>All searches use and as the default linking operator between all of the 
      search terms. Thus searching for <code>red herring</code> is the same as 
      searching for: <code>red and herring</code> For both of these searches, 
      only those sites with "red" and "herring" in the site name or description 
      will be returned. Sites that only mention "red" but not "herring" will not 
      be displayed. To get sites with either "red" or "herring" use the keyword 
      <code>or</code>. See the next section on using boolean operators. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="boolean"></a></b>Boolean Search</h4>
    <p> There are several boolean operators to choose from, they are: <code>or</code>, 
      <code>and</code>, and <code>andnot</code>. Terms linked by the <code>and</code> 
      operator will return only those sites that match all of the search terms 
      linked by the <code>and</code> operator. This is the default, if you don't 
      use any boolean operators, then only those sites that contain at least one 
      occurrence of each search term will be returned.. Terms linked by the <code>or</code> 
      operator will return those sites that match any of the search terms linked 
      by <code>or</code>. For example: <code>grey</code> or <code>gray</code> 
      and <code>parrot</code> Terms linked by the<code> andnot</code> operator 
      will exclude all sites that match the search term following the <code>andnot</code>. 
      For example: <code>random andnot house</code> will find sites about randomness, 
      but exclude sites about the publisher, Random House. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="wildcard"></a></b>Wildcard Search </h4>
    <p>The search can do some limited wildcarding. Specifically, wildcard completion. 
      This is useful when you are trying to match a term that may or may not be 
      plural or might have one of several verb tenses. For example if you wanted 
      to find sites that had to do with bicycling you might use the following 
      search: <code>Bicycl*</code> This would match sites on Bicycling, Bicycle, 
      and Bicycles. The search does not support arbitrary wildcards, so searches 
      on "<code>*cycling</code>" or "<code>Arch*ology</code>" will not work. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="shorthand"></a></b>Shorthand Search Terms </h4>
    <p>You can prefix search terms with "<code>-</code>" and "<code>+</code>" 
      to force the exclusion or inclusion of that term. This is really just shorthand 
      for using the <code>andnot</code> and and boolean operators. The following 
      example will return all the sites on baseball, except those that mention 
      "umpire." <code>+baseball -umpire</code> Note: You cannot begin a search 
      with a "<code>-</code>" term. You must put some other search term first. 
    </p>
    <h4><b><a name="complex"></a></b>Complex Queries </h4>
    <p>You can mix and match the above search methods to create very complex searches. 
      This search will return all sites on Lego trains, but exclude all the links 
      that mention Duplo: <code>lego train* andnot duplo</code> This search will 
      find references to racing, except those that are about racing cars or motorcycles. 
      <code>racing -auto -car -motorcycle -road -nascar</code> </p>
  </blockquote>
  <h4><b><a name="advanced"></a></b>Advanced Search</h4>
  <blockquote> 
    <p> The Simple Search feature is acceptable for most uses, but you may find 
      that you need the extra functionality provided by <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?a.x=0">Advanced 
      Search</a> which is linked from next to the search box on the main page, 
      and at the bottom of results pages. This feature builds upon the power of 
      Simple Search, by combining the options offered by its simpler counterpart 
      with the ability to have queries restricted to specific categories, categories 
      only, or sites only. </p>
    <h4><b><a name="restricting"></a></b>Restricting by Category </h4>
    <p>It is trivial to restrict the search to a given top-level category; you 
      simply select the appropriate category from the drop-down list box labelled: 
      "Only show results in category". However, if you wish to restrict the search 
      to a third-level category, for example, there is no easy way to do so. You 
      will have to select a top-level category to restrict the search to, as explained 
      above, and then alter the URL it returns, substituting the name of the required 
      category with the name of the top-level category. </p>
    <p>For example, imagine that you'd like to search for "<code>regular expressions</code>" 
      in <a href="http://dmoz.org:8080/Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl">Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl</a> 
      . Use the Advanced Search form to search for "<code>regular expressions</code>" 
      in <a href="http://dmoz.org:8080/Computers/">Computers/</a> and the URL will 
      look like this: <code><a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/osearch?search=regular+expressions&amp;cat=Computers&amp;t=b&amp;fo=0&amp;all=no">http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/osearch?search=regular+expressions&cat=Computers&t=b&fo=0&all=no</a></code> 
      , next replace '<code>Computers</code>' with '<a href="http://dmoz.org:8080/Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl/"><code>Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl</code></a>' 
      so that the URL looks like this: <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/osearch?search=regular+expressions&amp;cat=Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl&amp;t=b&amp;fo=0&amp;all=no"><code>http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/osearch?search=regular+expressions&cat=Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl&t=b&fo=0&all=no</code></a> 
    </p>
    <h4> <b><a name="cat_site"></a></b>Searching Category Names or Site Names 
      Only</h4>
    <p> The radio buttons below the "Only show results in category" option are 
      reasonably self-explanatory, but a brief explanation won't go amiss. By 
      default both the category names and site names -- read: titles, descriptions, 
      and URLs -- are searched for your query text. However you may wish to see 
      only the categories that include your query text in their names. To do this, 
      enter the query text as normal, and then select the 'Categories only' option. 
      To search only site names select the 'Sites only' option. </p>
  </blockquote>
