On the My Stories and Trending tabs, there is a search feature in the upper left corner:
This is not for searching through the watchlist (you scroll through the topics of the watchlist with the bar above the stories to do that). Instead, this feature allows you to search for a topic not on your watchlist, just like the desktop platform's Search Tab. We support both simple and complex search queries, the latter using Boolean operators, parentheses, and quotes (see below for explanation).
By tapping the magnifying glass, you will be presented with the familiar search bar. After typing your query, you will be able to choose a topic to view by itself, and you won't have to add it to a watchlist to see it. We also categorise the possible topics from your search to reduce confusion, which can happen when search terms apply to several different topics or ideas, like the word "Oil" below:
Boolean Search
Sometimes you want a very specific set of search results. Most search engines will allow you to use advanced queries to find exactly what you want if it exists. We do the same thing, and you can see some examples under the blue arrow. To make it a little clearer, though, below is a cheat sheet for Boolean search.
The main operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
X AND Y: only display results that contain both X and Y; if they're not both present, the result is not displayed
X OR Y: display results that contain X, Y, or both
X AND NOT Y: display results about X only. If Y is present, the result is not shown
Other operators include quotes and parentheses. Quotes require the result to have your exact wording and spelilng, while parentheses indicate groups.
(X AND Y) OR Z: displays articles that have only Z, only X+Y, or both (X+Y+Z). Importantly, this does not return results that have only X or only Y by themselves. They must both be present.
For example, you might search (Oil AND Gold) OR Elections. You will get results for elections, results that talk about both oil and gold, and results that talk about all three. However, you will not get results about only oil, about only gold, about oil and elections, or about gold and elections. The group of oil and gold must be together and neither oil nor gold can be alone.
Using parentheses is practical not just for readability, but unexpected results may occur if you have a complex query with many operators and don't group parts together.
"entries via airport": this will only return results that have this exact phrase. Since exact phrasing can be rare, if there are no exact matches, we'll give you some results that are close. Of course, we'll tell you that we couldn't find any, so you won't be searching for something that's not there.