Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a “–” sign.
To find pages without a particular term, put a – sign operator in front of the word in the query. The – sign indicates that you want to subtract or exclude pages that contain a specific term. Do not put […]
Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a “+” sign.
To force Google to search for a particular term, put a + sign operator in front of the word in the query. Note that you should not put a space between the + and the word. So, to search for the satirical […]
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. For example, [ “Larry Page“ ] finds pages containing the phrase “Larry Page” exactly. So this query would find pages mentioning Google’s co-founder […]
By using special characters and operators, such as +, –, ~, .., *, OR, and quotation marks, you can fine-tune your search query and increase the accuracy of its results.
For details, click an operator above or look in the following seven pages:
Quoted Phrases
The + Operator
The – Operator
The ~ Operator
The OR and | Operators
The .. Operator
The […]
...read all of: Crafting Your Query by using Special Characters
Understanding how Google treats your search terms will help you devise effective queries and revise ineffective ones.
1. All Search Terms Count
Google returns only pages that match all your search terms.
A search for [ compact fold-up bicycle ] finds pages containing the words “compact” and “fold-up” and “bicycle.” Because you don’t need to include the word AND between your […]
The search terms you enter and the order in which you enter them affect both the order and pages that appear in your search results. In the examples below, click on the similar ways of specifying various searches and note how the results differ.
For simplicity sake, this tutorial uses square brackets to denote Google’s search […]
If you have little or no experience with Google, read on. Otherwise, skip ahead to Going Directly to the 1st Result.
If your browser isn’t pointing to Google, visit Google’s home page by entering one of the following web addresses into your browser:
http://www.google.com/ (the full web address for Google)
www.google.com (a common abbreviation for Google’s web address)
google.com […]
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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.
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