Search tips

• How can I get better Search results?
• What sorting options are available?
• How do I narrow my search results (what are filters)?
• Why did some of the filters disappear during my Search?
• How can I get results for a specific word or phrase?
• How do I get results that include and/or exclude certain words?
• Why am I getting the "Did you mean?" suggested keyword(s)?
• Does spelling matter?
• Will I get different results with capitalization?

How can I get better Search results? back to top

• Be as specific as possible when choosing keywords and phrases for your search: for example, search for "Honda dealerships in Ashland" rather than "civic" if you're looking to buy a Civic.
• Try to use descriptive words and phrases. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. For example general words like "info" or "page" probably won't lead to more relevant results.
• Remember that every word matters in a search query.
• However, if you get too few results, make your search more general. Instead of searching for say a specific product model, try searching for the brand.

What sorting options are available? back to top

You can rearrange the search results by clicking on the Relevance and Date links on the search results pages or by entering a date range in the Time Period box.

Relevance: displays the results that most closely match your keyword(s) based on an algorithm built into the search tool.

Date: organizes the results so that the most recent content is shown first. You can also specify a specific date range for your search results by entering from and to dates into time period box and clicking filter.

How do I narrow my search results? back to top

If there are too many results to find the information you are looking for, you can narrow the results by clicking on the search filters to the right of the search results.

Clicking on the filters will display only content for that filter based on your keywords.

If you change your mind about your results, you can apply a different filter to your search results by clicking a different filter. For example, if you wanted information about a local fire and click on the video link it will display all videos relates to your search query. After seeing the video results, you decide you want to read the article associated with the event, just click on the article link on the right side of the search results page.

Filters defined:

By Category: use this filter to restrict the Search results to categories such as Business, Community, Entertainment, Help, Lifestyle, Media, News, Opinion, Special, or Sports

By Type: restricts the Search results to show only Articles, Databases, Forms, Photos, Section Fronts, Slideshows or Videos.

By Year/Month: restricts the Search results to a specific Year and/or Month.

Why did some of the filters disappear during my Search? back to top

Depending on your search query, there may not be search results in a given category. If there are no results for a particular filter, that filter will not be displayed.

How can I get results for a specific word or phrase? back to top

Just put your keywords in quation marks. For example, entering "Ashland fine dining" will return results that only contain that phrase.

How do I get results that include and/or exclude certain words? back to top

Use a a plus sign ( + ) before each word to include more than one keyword.

Use a minus sign ( - ) before each keyword to exclude certain keywords.

Make sure you place the ( + or - ) sign immediately before the term you want included or excluded.

Examples:

hotel +new york = results for hotels in New York

hotel -new york = all results for hotels including New York, and any others in Hudson Valley. It will also display all other results with hotel referenced.

Why am I getting the "Did you mean?" suggested keyword(s)? back to top

If your search query does not provide any results, we try to help you by suggesting possible keywords you may have been looking for.

Does spelling matter? back to top

Yes, spelling is very important. A misspelled word can lead to results that are not relevant to your search query, or could exclude results that may be relvant to your search query.

Will I get different results with capitalization? back to top

No. Search queries are not case senative, so a search for "Ashland Schools" will return the same reuslts as "ashland schools".