Search Help Topics

• The Basic Search
• Spelling
• Synonyms
• Automatic "and" Queries
• "OR" Searches
• See Your Search Terms in the Results
• Does Capitalization Matter?
• Phrase Searches
• Do not use Stop Words: "How"  "Where"  

The Basic Search

To enter a query, type in a few descriptive words and press the Enter key or click the Search button for a list of relevant results.

This westchestergov.com's Google search uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. 

Spelling

A single spelling suggestion is returned with the results for queries where the spell checker has detected a possible spelling mistake.

Synonyms

Synonyms are other words that have the same or similar meanings. They are displayed as "Other suggested searches" on the results page.

 

Automatic "and" Queries

By default, this search service only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. For example, to search for information about hiking and biking trailways, enter:

To broaden or restrict the search, include fewer or more terms.

"OR" Searches

This search service supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use an uppercase "OR" between terms. For example, to search for services for seniors or housing, enter:

See Your Search Terms in the Results

Every search result lists one or more excerpts from the web page to display how your search terms are used in context on that page. In the excerpt, your search terms are displayed in bold text so that you can quickly determine if that result is from a page you want to visit.

Does Capitalization Matter?

Searches on this site are not case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you enter them, are understood as lower case. For example, searches for "george washington," "George Washington," and "George washington" all return the same results.

Phrase Searches

You can search for phrases by adding quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes ("like this") appear together in all returned documents. Phrase searches using quotation marks are useful when searching for famous sayings or specific names.

Do not use Stop Words

Google ignores common words and characters known as stop words. These include most pronouns and articles. Google automatically disregards such terms as (where, how, this, the) as well as certain single digits and single letters (a). These terms rarely help to narrow a search and can significantly slow searching.