Types of Searches: Keyword (Free-text) Search
The
keyword search method is the most flexible type of search to use
in almost any database because it allows you to search for any terms
that may appear anywhere in a record. This flexibility is the greatest advantage of using this type of search. The disadvantage is that the search results may display records or pages that have nothing to do with your topic. An easy way to get more relevant results is to apply filters such as date range, location/domain, or file type.
Relevancy ranked searching is a type of free-text search that ranks your search results based on a relevancy algorithm. These algorithms will vary from database to database, but some of the factors used to determine how relevant a given record is to your search include:
- Frequency of search terms within the record
- Number of different search terms present within the record
- Proximity of search terms to each other within the record
- Uniqueness of search terms within the database
- Fields e.g., subject heading field, author field, title field) in which the terms occur. Some fields may carry heavier weight in the ranking.