The following is an example of how to refine a simple query into a finely filtered search on the BASIS Online Technical Support Knowledge Base. The subject of the search is an FSLOAD ERROR=70 on a UNIX system.

1. Enter ERROR into the Knowledge Base Excite engine and initiate a search.

   The search engine returns fifty entries including the word ERROR. In order to find a helpful article you would have to scan each article's title and description and find the one you need.

   However, because the Knowledge Base search engine can only pull up fifty entries at a time, if there were more than fifty error articles available, you would not have access to additional stories. The BASIS Online Knowledge Base actually contains over ninety articles on error messages, so with this simple search you would not be able to see half of them and might miss the error article specifically covering FSLOAD ERROR=70.

2. Initiate a search for +ERROR+70

   This more focused search uses the Boolean + symbol to ensure that both the word ERROR and the number 70 are in the articles returned by the search engine. The result is a more manageable index, but some of the articles cover conversions and are not really related to the query. Another level of refinement is needed to pull up the relevant information on FSLOAD ERROR=70.

3. Enter +ERROR+70+fsload.

   At this point, the search has been significantly narrowed, and the engine returns only four articles that relate to FSLOAD ERROR=70. Because this particular error is the source of many technical support calls, the technical support department has created separate articles that discuss this error on individual operating systems. To isolate the FSLOAD ERROR=70 on the UNIX operating system, one more refinement is required.

4. Enter +ERROR+70+fsload+UNIX

   This extremely focused search returns only two relevant articles that offer a solution to this error in a UNIX environment.