Using a search query form

The following search syntaxes can be used when searching text using the "search_query" parameter.

Plus ( + ) and minus ( - ) signs: The plus and minus signs do not join terms, but only operate on the term that follows them.
Quotation marks ( " ): Use quotes to combine words into search phrases, for example "IBM software".
Note: When you search for strings with special query characters, such as a blank or a colon ( : ), you must enclose your search string in quotes.
Trailing wild cards: Use an asterisk ( * ) as a trailing wild card in your search string, for example softw* .

Using the plus and minus signs

For your query, type any words that describe what you are looking for. Use the plus and minus signs as follows:

Put a plus sign ( + ) in front of the words that you want to be present in the returned documents.
Put a minus sign ( - ) in front of the words that must not be present in the returned documents.
When using signs, do not leave any space between the sign and the following word qualified by the sign.

+thinkpad: All documents retrieved must contain the word thinkpad. A single unsigned word, thinkpad, is also read this way, and is treated by the search engine as +thinkpad.
+thinkpad +drivers: All documents retrieved must contain the word thinkpad and the word drivers.
+thinkpad drivers: All documents retrieved must contain the word thinkpad, but only optionally the word drivers.

+thinkpad -drivers: All documents retrieved must contain the word thinkpad but must not contain the word drivers.

Note:

Do not use only minus signed terms for your search because they will not produce a result list. The reason is that in this case the search terms are too vague to allow for a meaningful scoring of the found documents.
Use spaces between signed terms in order to distinguish them from terms that contain a minus sign, such as e-mail. Note that e-mail is treated as "e-mail" whereas e -mail is treated as optionally e , and the word mail should not be contained in the resulting documents.