Help:Search

OpenWetWare Search

OpenWetWare uses Google's search engine to provide full text searching for our Wiki. All private wikis use the built-in MediaWiki search engine since, by design, all private wiki contents are not accessible to Google for indexing.

Availability of New Pages in Search Results

All OpenWetWare content is updated by Google on a very regular basis. All changes are provided for Google on a nightly basis. Google then uploads the changed pages during their visits to OpenWetWare multiple times per week.

One side effect of this is that new content introduced into OWW will not be accessible to searches. The latency between adding content and having it accessible via Google can be as much as 2-3 days, depending on what time of day a change is made or a new page is added.

Using Search Results

Google returns a set of results within OWW pages: you will not have to move back-and-forth between OpenWetWare and Google.com.

Search Scope

Although Google is a global directory, OpenWetWare's search implementation uses features of Google search to limit the pages to those contained within OpenWetWare. One exception to this is the use of Google's 'define' operator specified below. Google will attempt to find a definition for the term specified within OpenWetWare. If there is no definition available in in OpenWetWare, Google will insert a remote page including an appropriate definition into the OpenWetWare search result page.

Search Operators

Since OpenWetWare uses the same search term entry interface Google uses on the main Google search page, many of the same search operators available within the Google search box are available within OpenWetWare.

Below is a list of the available ways to refine your search query. Feel free to try out any of the terms below in the example section for each term. Keep in mind: you can include any combination of these terms in a single query.

Search Operator Guide

OPERATOR EXAMPLE	FINDS PAGES CONTAINING...	Try it!
enzyme genome	The words enzyme and genome
enzyme OR genome	Either the word enzyme or the word genome. The word "OR" must be uppercase
enzyme|genome	Either the word enzyme or the word genome. The "|" symbol does not need to be separated by spaces from adjacent words.
enzyme -genome	The word enzyme but NOT the word genome
+enzyme	Only the word enzyme, and not the plural or any tenses or synonyms
biology ~lab	biology info for both the word lab and its synonyms: lab, laboratory, etc.
define:genome	Definitions of the word genome from around the Web.
red * green	The words red and green separated by one or more words.
filetype:pdf	Find documents of the specified type
ext:pdf	Find documents of the specified extension
allintext:restriction enzyme	All query words must appear the in text of the page.
intext:restriction enzyme	The term "restriction" must appear in the text of the page.
allintitle:restriction enzyme	All query words must appear the in title of the page.
intitle:restriction enzyme	The term "restriction" must appear in the title of the page.
base-pair	all forms of the term, whether spelled as a single word, a phrase, or hyphenated
1..5	Specify that results contain numbers in a range by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces