The term “Boolean search” derives from George Boole, an English mathematician in the 19th century, who developed “Boolean Logic” so as to combine and exclude certain concepts when searching databases. You can now use this simple process as a way to make searching online much more effective.

Boolean search allows users to combine keywords with operators (or modifiers) such as AND, NOT and OR in order to produce more relevant results when using the search box (for example on LinkedIn’s top menu bar).

Here’s how Boolean works:

1. OR – To see results that include one or more terms (titles, keywords, descriptors) in a search, separate the different search terms with an uppercase OR: type director OR manager to look for both directors or managers.
   
   

   Using OR will expand your search.

2. NOT – To exclude a particular term, type NOT before it: director NOT manager will look for directors but NOT managers.

   
   Using NOT will refine your search.

3. AND – To get results that include two or more terms in a list, you can use the uppercase word AND as a separator: type director AND manager to find someone who both directs and manages.

   
   So using AND also refines your search.

   
   

   According to LinkedIn, you don’t need to use AND if you search two or more terms since you will automatically see results that include all of your terms.

Another simple technique that'll help you to get a better result

All that you need to do here is to surround you search term with quotation marks/inverted commas.

So if for example you were to search for Financial Director on LinkedIn without quotation marks then the results will show profiles that include each word (i.e. everywhere that the words 'financial' and 'director' are mentioned). But if you surround it with quotation marks, as in "Financial Director", then the results will display a list of members that include everyone with the specific phrase “Financial Director” in their profile.