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Ananzi Search Help



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Phone the Ananzi Helpline for assistance: (011) 575 0511 (office hours only)


  1. Search using words
  2. Search using phrases
  3. Search using plain language
  4. Including and excluding search terms
  5. Search using field searches
  6. Summary of query syntax
  7. Stop words
  8. Case-sensitivity
1. Search using words

To search for results containing multiple words in the Ananzi search engine separate these with spaces, e.g.

   south african cricket team

This will return results containing any of the above words.

For more specific results, enter several words separated by commas which describe the subject more precisely, such as:

   south african, cricket team, training

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2. Search using phrases

To search for results containing an exact phrase, surround it with double quotation marks, e.g.

   "rugby team"

This will return results containing the phrase "rugby team".

Commas are not needed when the phrases are surrounded by quotation marks.

The following example searches for a document that contains the phrases "south african" and "rugby team".

   "south african" "rugby team"

This will return all results containing either the phrase "south african" or "rugby team"

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3. Search using plain language

To search the Ananzi search engine using plain language, just enter a question or concept.

The Ananzi search engine identifies the important words and then performs a search for these For example, enter a question such as:

   Where is the waterfront in Cape Town?

This query produces the same results as entering:

   waterfront Cape Town

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4. Including and Excluding Search Terms

You can limit searches on the Ananzi search engine by excluding or requiring search terms, or by limiting the areas of the document that are searched.

A minus sign (-) immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) excludes documents containing the term, e.g.

   waterfront "Cape Town" -Randburg

This will only return results about the Waterfront in Cape Town, not the Waterfront in Randburg.

A plus sign (+) immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) means returned documents are guaranteed to contain the term.

   waterfront +Randburg

This will return all sites about the Randburg Waterfront.

Ananzi Search has a simple query syntax which gives you the pinpoint search power of Boolean logic, without having to remember complex queries. The table below shows the Ananzi Search operators that correspond to Boolean operators:
Ananzi Search Operator Boolean Equivalent
default operator:
you do not need to use any special symbols		 OR
+ AND
- NOT
phrase operator:
enclose the phrase with double quotation marks		 ADJ

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5. Search using field searches

The Ananzi search engine allows users to restrict searches to certain portions of web documents by using Ananzi Search field syntax. This allows you to search for web page titles, urls, embedded hypertext links, and any additional information defined with an HTML meta tag (e.g. author, date).

To search a document field, type the name of the field in lowe case followed by a colon (:) and thereafter the search term, with no spaces:

   field:term

e.g.

   url:www.biltong.co.za
   title:dstv
   link:www.ananzi.co.za
   site:startpage.co.za

If you enter a minus sign (-) immediately proceeding the field, documents containing the specified term will be excluded from the search results. For example, if you enter -field:term, documents containing the specified term in the specified field will be excluded from the results of the search, e.g.

   meat -url:www.biltong.co.za

This will return results containing the word "meat", but will exclude any results from the web site www.biltong.co.za

If you enter a plus sign (+) immediately proceeding the field search specification, such as +field:term, documents will be included in the search results only if the search term is present in the specified field.

   movies +title:dstv

This will return all results containing the word "movies", as long as the title also contains the word "dstv".

Field Search Summary:
Name Description Example
  If no field is specified, the text is searched for in the Title, Summary, and Body. color printer
link Searches a hyperlink within the text of the document link:ananzi.co.za
site Searches within pages on a specified site site:www.startpage.co.za
url Searches within the URL of the document url:brabys.com/codes.asp
title Searches within the title tag of a document title:"springbok rugby"
title:Pretoria

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6. Summary of query syntax

Ananzi's query syntax is very similar to the syntax users expect to use on the web. Queries are interpreted according to the following rules:
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7. Stop Words

Stop words are terms which are ignored when the search query is being processed.

For example, the following stop words are ignored by the Ananzi search engine:
a did i or what
also do i'm should when
an does if so where
and find in that whether
any for is that which
am from it the who
are get its there whose
as got it's to why
at had like too will
be has not want with
but have of was would
can how on were or

NOTE: You can override stop words by using quotation marks around the word.

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8. Case-sensitivity

The Ananzi search engine matches the case-sensitivity of the search query when mixed case is used in a query.

For search terms entered completely in lowercase or uppercase, the search engine looks for all mixed-case variations.

Search terms with mixed case automatically become case-sensitive

For example, the query of Apple behaves as if you had specified Apple (which would find only the precise string Apple), while the query of apple finds all of the following: APPLE, Apple, apple.

A string of capitalized words is assumed to be a name. Separate a series of names with commas:

   Standard Bank
   Standard Bank, First National Bank, ABSA

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