DoD Web Search Tips
Basic Query Box
The simplified query box is at the top of most pages on the Department of Defense Web site (DefenseLink).
DoD search query example
To search, type a word or phrase into this box. Click GO or press the Enter button on your keyboard.
Viewing Search Results
DoD Search uses text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. For instance, DoD Search analyzes not only the candidate page but also the pages that link to it. DoD Search also prefers pages in which your search terms are near each other. Every search result lists one or more snippets, or excerpts from the document, to display the search terms in context. In the snippet, your search terms are displayed in bold text so that you can quickly determine if that result is from a page or document you want to visit.
Search Results Explanation
The search results page includes the query box, search terms, and number of matches, and a suggested alternate spelling, based on the site dictionary, if appropriate. Each search result item has the title, URL, with the size and date if available, and a "snippet" from the document shows the matched term in context whenever possible. Navigational items are explained below.
  1. Query Box with search word or phrase.
  2. Search by Collection: Option to narrow your search to a specific or group of collections. The following selections are available:
    DefenseLink: searches only the Department of Defense (DefenseLink) collection.
    Army: searches the Army collections.
    Navy: searches the Navy collections.
    Air Force: searches the Air Force collections.
    Marines: searches the Marine Corps collections.
    National Guard: searches only the National Guard collection.
    'All Military Web Sites:' searches a combination of all the above.
  3. Search Statistics: This line describes your search and indicates the total number of results, as well as how long the search took to complete.
  4. Sort: By default, search results are sorted by relevance, with the most relevant result appearing at the top of the page. If you want to sort the documents by date instead, click the Sort by Date link. The most recent document appears at the top of the page and the date of each file is returned in the results. Results that do not contain dates are displayed at the end and are sorted by relevance.
  5. 'Did you mean' DoD search uses spell checking software to check queries against common spellings of each word. When we determine an alternative suggestion that we think might improve the search results, you'll see "Did you mean: (more common spelling)" at the top of your search results page. Please note that our spell check feature is completely automated, and we cannot make manual changes to individual suggestions.
  6. KeyMatch provides users immediate links to relevant content using the terms that are most frequently searched on.
  7. KeyMatch designation.
  8. The title: The first line of any search result is the title of the webpage. The title is a short description of the page.
  9. The snippet: A description of or an excerpt from the webpage. The snippet is the algorithmic attempt to extract just the part of the page most relevant to your query.
  10. The URL: The webpage's address. (Some URLs are truncated)
  11. Cached link: A link to an earlier version of this page. Click here if the page you wanted isn't available.
Search Results Query Box
Search Results Query Box
The Search Results query box is at the top of all Department of Defense search results pages. Navigational items are explained below.
  1. Use the 'Search Within Results' to search for a more specific topic within your original search results. This option retrieves a subset of your original results.
  2. Advanced Search features allow you to refine and create a very specific search.
  3. You are currently viewing Search Tips
  4. Collections: Option to narrow your search to a specific collection or group of collections. The following selections are available:
    DefenseLink: searches only the Department of Defense (DefenseLink) collection.
    Army: searches the Army collections.
    Navy: searches the Navy collections.
    Air Force: searches the Air Force collections.
    Marines: searches the Marine Corps collections.
    National Guard: searches only the National Guard collection.
    'All Military Web Sites:' searches a combination of all the above.
Refining Your Search
Since DoD search returns only web pages that contain all of the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered. The refined query returns a subset of the pages that were returned by your original broad query. If that does not get the results that you want, you can try to exclude words, search for exact phrases, or restrict the search to a range of numbers. These techniques are described in the following subsections.

Word Exclusion

If your search term has more than one meaning, you can focus your search by adding a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid. Make sure you include a space before the minus sign. You can daisy chain a list of words you want to exclude.

For example, to search for Afghanistan and exclude search results from the cities of Kabul and Kandahar, type the following query:

DoD search returns pages about Afghanistan that do not contain the word "Kabul" or "Kandahar."

Phrase Searches

Phrase searches are useful when you are searching for famous sayings or specific names. You can search for an exact phrase or name in the following ways:

  • By enclosing the phrase in quotation marks. The search appliance only returns documents that include the exact phrase you entered.
  • By using phrase connectors—such as hyphens, slashes, periods, equal signs, and apostrophes—in between every word of your search query.

Phrase connectors and quotation marks join your search words as a single unit. For example, if you type the following query, the search appliance treats it as a phrase search even though the search words are not enclosed in quotation marks.

Range Searches

You can confine your search query within a certain range. You can set ranges for dates, weights, prices, meta tags, and so on. The following subsections describe ways you can refine your searches with ranges.

Number Ranges

To search for documents or items that contain numbers within a range, type your search term and the range of numbers separated by two periods (".."). You can set ranges for weights ("one..five ton truck"), dimensions ("40..130 mm mortar"), years ("afghanistan 2000..2006"), prices in dollar currencies only ("contract $500,000..$1,000,000"), speed (10..50 knots") and so on. Be sure to specify a unit of measurement or some other indicator of what the number range represents.

For example, to search for contracts between $500,000 and $1,000,000, type the following:

Each number in the range should not include more than six significant digits. For example, if you were to type the search query, "1..1234567 ton tank," only the first six significant digits in the "1234567" would be included in the range search; that is, it is as though you have just typed, "1..1234560 ton tank."

Date Ranges

You can search for documents that contain dates that fall within a time frame. To use date range search, type all of the following:

  • The search term
  • The daterange:
  • The start date
  • The range separator (which is two periods)
  • The end date

Do not add a space between the daterange and the actual dates.

For example, to search for a contract that was issued within a specific two-year period, type the following:

The earliest date that you can use in your date range search is January 1, 1990; and the latest date, November 9, 2034.
Advanced Search Operators
DoD search supports several advanced operators, which are search words that restrict your search to a smaller set of documents. When you enter your search query, do not add a space between the search operator and the search terms. Example: allintext:iraq
OPERATOR DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE
allintext:

Restricts the search to documents whose body text contains the search terms. The search appliance does not search for the query words in the metadata, titles, and anchors.

Also see the intext:search operator.

 Typing allintext:baghdad iraq in the search box returns only documents that have both "baghdad" and "iraq" in the body text of the document.
allintitle:

Restricts the search to documents whose HTML title contains all the search terms.

Also see the intitle: search operator.

Typing allintitle:baghdad iraq in the search box returns only documents that have both "baghdad" and "iraq" in the HTML title.
intext:

Restricts the search to documents that contain the search word in the body text of the documents.

Putting intext: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintext: at the front of your query.

Typing intext:baghdad returns documents that mention the word "baghdad" in their body text. If a document has "baghdad" in the HTML title, but not in the body text, the document will not be included in the search results.

Typing intext:baghdad iraq returns documents that mention the word "baghdad" in the body text and mention the word "iraq" in the body text, the title, the anchor, or anywhere else in the document.

Typing intext:baghdad intext:iraq in the search box is the same as typing allintext: baghdad iraq.
intitle:

Restricts the search to documents that contain the search word in the HTML title.

Putting intitle: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintitle: at the front of your query.

Typing intitle:baghdad iraq returns documents that mention the word "baghdad" in their HTML title, and mention the word "iraq" in the title, body text, anchor, or anywhere else in the document.

Typing intitle:baghdad intitle:iraq in the search box is the same as typing allintitle:baghdad iraq.