Boolean Operator

When individuals use search engines to find information on the Internet, the Boolean Operators "AND," "OR," and "NOT" are often used to maximize the relevancy and effectiveness of their search. By entering them in the form of a search query, these operators specify the parameters of a search. For example, someone searching for information about surfing in California might enter the following query to target their search: "Surfing AND California". By using the "AND" operator, the search will only include results that contain the words California and surfing, not results that include only one of the two terms. If the individual were interested in results about California, surfing, or California and surfing, the following query could be used: Surfing OR California. Finally, if someone wanted information about surfing, but specifically not about surfing in California, the NOT operator could be used as follows: Surfing NOT California.

Boolean operators are a fundamental component of a kind of algebra called Boolean Logic. Named after 19th century English mathematician George Boole, Boolean Logic boils down all values to one of two states: true or false. This closely mirrors the binary approach digital computers use to interpret and process information, whereby commands are converted to sequences of either zeroes or ones. The millions of transistors found on a computer's microprocessor are always in one of two states (on or off). These two states, which are represented by ones and zeroes, respectively, correspond to Boolean Logic.