What is a "phrase"? Phrases are combinations of "words" where the results will appear as a phrase in the search results. To search a phrase, all the words must appear in double quotation marks when entered in the search box. For example, "salt and pepper" will return all pages with "salt and pepper", "Salt and Pepper", "SALT AND PEPPER", etc., but not "salt & pepper" which is a different phrase. Remember, every thing in double quote marks is treated as a phrase.

How would you search for CHURCH OF CHRIST? Answer "church of christ" in double quotation marks. One would get only "church of christ", not "churches of christ" which is a different phrase. (More on this on the next page.)

If we search for both "church" and "christ" we would get the results of BOTH word in the same search -- like "the Church of God in Christ" because both words or either word appeared in the search results. In ranking the results both words will appear before either word by itself. Take a look at the bottom of the next page for word count.

Like the last few pages, look at the word count at the end of the search for the words and phrases search and at the beginning of the search results for the matches found. Notice that "of" is included as part of the phrase, while words like -- a, an, the -- are not. Notice the similarity and differences between these two search engines using the same database.

The next few pages will illustrate this principle in a simple search on AltaVista looking for web page count AltaVista Simple -- http://altavista.digital.com/ -- on different capitalization, of the word "church": --  

1. church christ (Click on church christ to see the simple search.)
2. church of christ (Click on church of christ to see the simple search.)
3. "church of christ" (Click on "church of christ" to see the simple search.)