1. Logical Disjunction Operator: or
Function: Expands the search range, indicates that any one of the conditions must be met to be included in the search.
Example: “work-from-home” or “work from home” or “WFH” or “home office” — indicates that the search is related to content about working from home.
2. Logical Conjunction Operator: and
Function: Narrows the search scope. Search exclusively for specific keywords or concepts while filtering out any irrelevant content.
Example: “work from home” and “coronavirus” — indicates that both “work from home” and “coronavirus” must co-occur in the text to be included in the search results.
3. Logical Negation Operator: not
Function: Eliminates unrelated content from the search results.
Example: Apple Inc. or (Apple and company) not (fruit or juice or pie) — indicates that the search is focused on content related to Apple (the company) while excluding information related to apples (the fruit).
4. Logical Operator: from
Function: To query content from designated media sources.
Example: from: (“ABC News” or “The New York Times” or “The Times Online”) specifies that the search will return content from one or more of the following outlets: ABC News, The New York Times and The Times Online.
To query all sources containing the term “Times” you can use the keyword:
from.match: Times – which indicates that the search will encompass all sources that include the term “Times”.
Note: The designated sources must correspond with those integrated into the platform. It’s recommended to search for the necessary sources on the platform prior to setting the source keywords.
5. Logical Operator: in
Function: To query content from specific sections or to exclude certain sections.
Example: in: (“Local News” or “Radio News” or Sports or “Sports News”) specifies that the search will include content from one or more of the following sections: Local News, Radio News, Sports, Sports News.
6. Logical Operator: ur
Function: To query specific URLs or posts.
Example:
ur:”https://www.facebook.com/ExploretheAmericas/posts/pfbid02A4cBDrtDHjGLffUThTSfofcpTp1yRdxPLkaVfpr1bTRrjZ7S2cJ6tdy8EK4ncDWHl” – this retrieves the post linked to https://www.facebook.com/ExploretheAmericas/posts/pfbid02A4cBDrtDHjGLffUThTSfofcpTp1yRdxPLkaVfpr1bTRrjZ7S2cJ6tdy8EK4ncDWHl.
Note:
- When querying Facebook posts, “https” needs to be changed to “http”.
- Some links of Facebook may change, which may cause the original link can not be retrievable on the platform.
7. Logical Operator: zone
Function: To query posts from specific regions.
The abbreviations for regions are as follows:
Macau, China: mo
Hong Kong, China: hk
Taiwan, China: tw
Mainland China: cn
Overseas: os
Example: zone: “mo” indicates that only posts from Macau will be retrieved.
zone: (“mo” or “hk”) indicates that posts from either Macau or Hong Kong will be retrieved.
(zone: (“mo” or “hk”)) and travel indicates that posts from Macau or Hong Kong will be retrieved, with content including the term “travel.”
8. Logical Operator: proximity
Function: To query posts where specific keywords have a defined word distance between them.
Example: “Hongkong travel”~2 indicates that the keywords “Hongkong” and “travel” must appear together, with no more than two words in between.
(“Hongkong travel”~3) and development – indicates that the terms “Hongkong” and “travel” must be no more than three words apart, and the post must also include the term “development” to be retrieved.
(“Hongkong travel”~3) and (“Hongkong development”~3) – indicates that “Hongkong” and “travel” must be no more than three words apart, while “Hongkong” and “development” must also be no more than three words apart to be retrieved.
“Samsung phone launch”~10 – this setting indicates that, without regard to the order of the keywords, if the distance between A and B are equal or less than 10 words apart, and B and C are also equal or less than 10 words apart, then the conditions are met and the data can be retrieved.
Note:
1. When both “or” and “and” are included in a set of keywords, parentheses must be used to clarify the logical relationship between the keywords, e.g., “work from home” and (“COVID-19” or “Coronavirus”).
2. Quotation marks must be used if there are spaces or symbols between keywords, e.g., “economic policy” or “trip.com”.
3. Use double quotes “” in English format.
4. Ensure there is a space before and after “and” / “or”.
5. Use half-width symbols.
6. Keyword setting is not case sensitive.