Google Tips:
If you're already familiar with Google searches, you can use the same techniques that have been successful for you elsewhere here on the HRS site.
But if you're not, here are some tips:
How to Use the Search
Simply type your search criteria into the Search field in the upper right corner of every page and press Enter, or click on the small gray arrowhead located next to the field on the right.
Choosing Search Terms
Start with the obvious — if you're looking for general information on arrhythmia, try typing arrhythmia into the Search field.
Capitalization
Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case.
Multiple Search Terms — "AND" versus "OR"
You can use multiple search terms. The default is "AND". So heart attack and heart AND attack yield identical results. If you include multiple search terms without any other qualifier, only pages that include ALL of your search terms will be returned. So searching for heart attack will return all pages containing at least one instance of BOTH words. If you want to search for pages containing EITHER heart OR attack, search for heart OR attack instead. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are entered may affect the order that the search results are returned.
Phrase Searches/Exact Matches
Another way to use multiple terms in your searches is to define them as phrase searches, which simply means putting quotation marks around two or more words. So although searching for heart attack returns all pages containing both of the words "heart" and "attack", searching for "heart attack" returns only those pages containing the PHRASE "heart attack".
Automatic Exclusion of Common Words
Google normally ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. One way to include common words in your searches is to define them as phrase searches (see above). Another way is to force inclusion (see below).
Force Inclusion/Exclusion
You can force inclusion of common words in your searches by prefacing them with a plus symbol (+), which will force them to be included (i.e., the search will only return pages containing AT LEAST ONE instance of those words.) To exclude pages containing a particular word, preface that word with a minus symbol/hyphen (-). No pages containing that word will be returned, even if those pages DO contain other search terms. Remember that when using either + or - symbols, be sure to leave a single space before each of them in the Search field (e.g., "alpha -beta +gamma", not "alpha-beta+gamma")
Word Variations (stemming)
Google now uses stemming technology to assist you in refining your search. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for words that are identical to your specific search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms.