This website uses the Funnelback search engine, developed by CSIRO, which will help you find the information you need on the CSIRO.au website as well as other websites in the CSIRO domain.
Basic search
A search box (field) is located in the top right-hand corner of all pages on this website. To conduct a search on any word or phrase, type it into the box and press 'enter' on your keyboard.
Once the Funnelback search engine has completed searching, it will return all pages that contain your search word(s). If you include more than one search word, it will display pages that contain either a word or combinations of those words.
By default, your query will return a list of results from the csiro.au website only.
CSIRO, however, hosts a number of other websites on more specific subjects and business areas within the broader CSIRO domain.
To expand your search to cover all these sites, select the 'All CSIRO websites' radio button (found at the top of the results page returned from your initial search) and press 'enter' again.
Featured pages
The search engine includes a list of the popular sections of the website, known as “Featured Pages” and their related search terms. If a search matches one or more of these Featured Pages, they are displayed above the returned search results.
Refining your search
Funnelback allows you to reduce the number of page matches displayed by using “search operators”. Operators can be used to search for plural forms or words, exclude words from your search, find partial words and combinations of words.
Quote marks – Surround a group of words with quote marks if you want to search for that exact combination of words. This should be used when searching for a person by their first and last name. For example, “John Smith” will search for the person John Smith; however, John Smith will search for John, Smith and John Smith.
Square brackets – Surround a group of words with square brackets if you want to search for either one word or another. For example, [air water] will search for pages that include the words air or water, but not both.
Minus sign – Place a minus sign (-) immediately in front of a word to search for pages that do not include that word. For example, astronomy –parkes will search for pages that include the word astronomy and not the word parkes.
Plus sign - Place a plus sign (+) immediately in front of a word to search for pages that include that word. For example, astronomy +parkes will search for pages that include the word astronomy and must include the word parkes.
Asterisk(s) – Place an asterisk (*) immediately in front, or at the end, of a partial word will search for words that contain the partial word. For example, info* will search pages that include the words information, informative and informatics.
Hash – Place a hash (#) immediately at the end of a word to search pages that contain the word and variations of the word (including plural and adjective forms of the word). For example, mine# will search for pages containing the words mine, mines and mining.
t: – Use this search term to look for documents with a particular word in the title. A document’s title is the text that appears in the caption pane of your web browser. For example, t:search will list this page in the results. Including ‘t:Service’ in your search would help to find Service documents.
i: – Use this search term to look for documents with a particular word in the alternate (alt) text of an image. For example, i:search will list this page in the results because the alt text for the image on this page contains the word 'search'.
Date range – using the operator d and brackets (< and >) will restrict your search to pages published before, after or during a particular date range. Dates can be written in several forms: 15dec2005; dec2005 or 2005.
-
d<(date) searches for pages published before the date
-
d>(date) searches for pages published after the date
-
d>(date1)<(date2) searches for pages published after date1 and before date2
-
d<(date1)>(date2) searches for pages published before date1 or after date2
Combining commands
You can combine commands to help narrow your search:
| Example search text |
Searches for… |
| “gene technology” d<20jan2009 |
documents containing the phrase 'gene technology' published
before 20 January 2009. |
| gene –wheat t:overview t:research |
documents containing ‘gene’, with ‘overview’ and ‘research’
in their title and that do not contain ‘wheat’. |
| gene technology –t:“gene shears” |
documents containing ‘gene’ and ‘technology’, but without
the phrase ‘gene shears’ in their title. |
Visit the Funnelback website for more information on search operators and the Funnelback search engine.
Site Map | Legal Notice and Disclaimer | Privacy | Copyright | Last updated: 14 November 2005
