Doing a search on LawCrawler is easy. Simply type one or more search terms (the words or phrase that best describe the information you want to find) into the search box and hit the "Google Search" button.

In response, LawCrawler produces a results page: a list of web pages related to your search terms, with the most relevant page appearing first, then the next, and so on.

Below are some basic tips to help you maximize the effectiveness of your search:

Choosing Search Terms

Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding the information you need.

Start with the obvious -- if you are looking for general information on Malaysia, try Malaysia.

However, it's often advisable to use multiple search terms; if you're looking for information on law of Malaysia, you'll do better with Malaysia law than either law or Malaysia.

Capitalisation

LawCrawler searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for Malaysia, malaysia, and mAlAySiA will all return the same results.

Automatic "AND" Queries

By default, LawCrawler will only return pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more terms. For example, to search for information on law of Malaysia, simply type malaysia law.

"OR" Search

To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms.

For example, here's how to search for education in either Malaysia or Singapore:

Automatic Exclusion of Common Words

LawCrawler ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results.

If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a space before the "+" sign.)

Another method for doing this is conducting a phrase search, which simply means putting quotation marks around two or more words. Common words in a phrase search (e.g. "where are you") are included in the search.

For example, to search for Immigration Act 1959/63 Section 8, use:

or

Phrase Searches

Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.

Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("Multimedia Super Corridor") or other famous phrases ("Honesty is the best policy").

Negative Terms

If your search term has more than one meaning (train, for example, could refer to teach a specified skill or railway carriages), you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.

For example, here's how you'd find pages about train athletes, but not train railway vehicle:

Note: When you include a negative term in your search, be sure to include a space before the minus sign.

Domain Search

You can use LawCrawler to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.

For example, here's how you'd find admission information on the University of London site: