This involves searching of electronic data contained in the computer for the various purposes. The process of searching data on a computer is different from searching a document within a file or in a cabinet. The term search is therefore very broad.

It is very easy when you are looking for a file within a cabinet since you can touch, see, smell or even feel it. However, the searching of electronic documents from a computer involves searching for documents that you cannot smell, touch or feel but you can still see the document on the computer’s screen either in texts or number forms. The various numbers seen on the screen are a combination of zeros and one commonly known as binaries.

In general, computers do not store data in Spanish, English or German but they store data in binary form. Computer users usually employ different names when saving their files. This means that a detailed search is required when looking for documents in a computer. Further techniques and knowledge will be necessary when retrieving data on a computer. “Keyword” search is the starting point when you are searching for any data.

Keyword

When conducting computer searches, you do not have to an emphasis on the names related to the documents. You should rather concentrate on a string of data or an operative word which might lead you to the relevant document which contains the terms you are searching.

Using “keywords” is critical to computer searches. The ability to formulate the appropriate search terminology or keywords is very critical. Computers will only respond to the questions asked during the searching process.

Synonym search

This kind of search returns to the extended patterns associated with the search word. For instance, when you search for a car, the results might turn to cats or catlike.

Fuzzy search

This help in finding the search word even when it is misspelled. For instance, the search for a word like “house” will return to the search result for “house.” This helps in those circumstances when you have some issues in spelling the words correctly.

Noise words

Most of the advanced and specialized search applications such as forensic and Ediscovery provides you with an opportunity of excluding the “noise words” during the search. Eliminating the noise words helps to save the computer resources and time. Example of noise words are:e.g., was, e.t.c

Concept search

This involves the use of the search questions in identifying a group of documents which have a similar thread or subject matter. The approach is important in locating some documents which have more or less similar content.