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| Power Googling: Selecting Search Terms & Crafting Your Query |
The search terms you enter and the order in which you enter them affect
Use words likely to appear on the pages you want.
USE [ Australia
Target store ]
NOT [ Does
Australia have Target ]
Avoid using words that you might associate with your topic, but you wouldn't expect to find on the designated page(s).
USE [ lasik eye surgery ]
NOT [ documentation
on lasik eye surgery ]
USE [ jobs
product marketing Sunnyvale ]
NOT [ listings
of product marketing jobs in Sunnyvale ]
Be specific: Use more query terms to narrow your results.
Does your query have enough specific information for Google to determine unambiguously what you're seeking?
USE [ Java Indonesia ],
[ java coffee ], or
[ java
programming language ]
NOT [ java ]
How can you come up with more specific search terms?
Consider answers to the questions, who?, what?, where?, when?, why?, and how?
Add a term that distinguishes among them.
USE [ Tom
Watson MP ],
[ Tom
Watson golf ], or
[ Tom
Watson IBM ]
NOT [ Tom Watson ]
USE [ quit smoking program ]
NOT [ program on quitting tobacco cigarette smoking addiction ]
You don't have to correct your spelling.
When you enter: [ Anna Kornikova tennis ]
Google responds: Did you mean: Anna Kournikova tennis
To search for a phrase, a proper name, or a set of words
in a specific order, put them in double quotes.
A query with terms in quotes finds pages containing the
exact quoted phrase.
Find pages mentioning Google's co-founder
Larry Page.
[ "Larry
Page" ]
Find pages containing
[ Larry
Page ]
A quoted phrase is the most widely used type of special
search syntax.
[ "what
you're looking for is already inside you" Anne Lamott
speech ]
Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a "+" sign.
Note: Do not put a space between the + and the word.
USE [ +The Onion ]
NOT
[ + The Onion ]
Though the character has special meaning, Google gives special attention to very common terms that include it, e.g., C++ (the name of a widely used computer language).
[ C++ ]
Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a "-" sign.
Do not put a space between the - and the word.
USE [ dolphins -football ]
NOT [ dolphins
Search for a twins support group in Minnesota, but exclude pages with the word "baseball".
[ twins
support group Minnesota -baseball ]
You can exclude more than one term.
Find pages on "salsa" but not the dance nor dance classes.
Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym operator.
The tilde (~) operator takes the word immediately following it and searches both for that specific word and for the word's synonyms. It also searches for the term with alternative endings.
Put the ~ (tilde) next to the word, with no spaces between the ~ and its associated word.
USE [ ~lightweight laptop ]
NOT [ ~ lightweight laptop ]
Why does Google use tilde? In math, the "~" symbol means "is similar to".
The tilde tells Google to search for pages that are synonyms or similar to the term that follows.
[ ~inexpensive ] matches
"inexpensive," "cheap,"
"affordable," and "low cost"
[ ~run ] matches "run,"
"runner's," "running,"
as well as "marathon"
Looking for a guide, help, tutorial, or tips on using Google?
[ google ~guide ]
Interested in food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information?
[ ~food ~facts ]
The synonym operator tends not to work well on infrequently-used query terms.
[ ~cockroach ]
If you don't like the synonyms that Google suggests when you use the ~ operator, specify your own synonyms with the OR operator, which I describe next.
Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase OR or | (vertical bar).
[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ]
[ Tahiti | Hawaii ]
[ blouse
OR shirt OR
chemise ]
[ blouse
| shirt |
chemise ]
Note: If you write OR with a lowercase "o" or a lowercase "r," Google interprets the word as a search term instead of an operator.
Note: Unlike OR, a | (vertical bar) need not be surrounded by spaces.
Use quotes (" ") to group compound words and phrases together.
[ filter OR stop "junk email" OR spam ]
[ "New Zealand
[ recumbent bicycle $250..$1000 ]
Find the year the Russian Revolution took place.
[ Russian Revolution 1800..2000 ]
This table summarizes how to use the basic search operators, described on this page. You may include any of these operators multiple times in a query.
Notation Find result Example terms1 terms2 with both term1 and term2 [ carry-on luggage ] term1 OR term2
term1 |term2 with either term1 or term2 or both [ Tahiti OR Hawaii ]
[ Tahiti | Hawaii ]" phrase" with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order [ "I have a dream" ]
[ "Rio de Janeiro" ]+term with term (The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.) [ +i spy ] -term without term [ twins minnesota -baseball ]~ term with term or one of its synonyms
(currently supported on Web and Directory search)[ google ~guide ] number1..number2 with a number in the specified range
[ annual report 2000..2003 ]
This page was last modified on Monday October 23, 2006.
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For Google tips, tricks, & how Google works, visit
Google Guide at www.GoogleGuide.com. By Nancy Blachman and Jerry Peek who aren't Google employees. For permission to copy & create derivative works, visit Google Guide's Creative Commons License webpage. |