Basic search help
Search is simple: just type whatever comes to mind in the search box, hit Enter or click the Search button, and Google will search the web for content that's relevant to your search. If you have Google Instant enabled, results may appear dynamically as you type.Most of the time, you'll find exactly what you're looking for with just a basic query (the word or phrase you search for). However, the following tips can help you make the most of your searches. Throughout the article, we'll use square brackets [ ] to signal a search query, so
Some basic facts
- Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used.
- Search is always case insensitive. A search for
[ new york times ] is the same as a search for[ New York Times ] . - Generally, punctuation is ignored, including @#$%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters.
To make sure that your Google searches return the most relevant results, there are some exceptions to the rules above.
Tips for better searches
- Keep it simple. If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place, or product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.
- Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying
[ my head hurts ] , say[ headache ], because that's the term a medical page will use. The query[ in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? ] is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query[ bats are considered good luck in ] or even just[ bats good luck ] , because that is probably what the right page will say. - Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example,
[ weather cancun ] is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer[ weather report for cancun mexico ]. - Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,' 'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need. For example,
[ celebrity ringtones ] is more descriptive and specific than[ celebrity sounds ] .
The search results page
Google's goal is to provide you with results that are clear and easy to read. A basic search result will include a title that links to the webpage, a short description or an actual excerpt from the webpage, and the page's URL.More search help
The Basic search help article covers all the most common issues, but sometimes you need a little bit more power. This document will highlight the more advanced features of Google Web Search. Have in mind though that even very advanced searchers, such as the members of the search group at Google, use these features less than 5% of the time. Basic simple search is often enough. As always, we use square brackets [ ] to denote queries, so- Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for[ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell. - Search within a specific website (site:)
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query[ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries[ iraq nytimes.com ] or[ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example[ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and[ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites. - Terms you want to exclude (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query[ anti-virus software ] , the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query[ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example[ jaguar -cars -football -os ] . The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results. - Fill in the blanks (*)
The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search[ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products (go to next page and next page -- we have many products). The query[ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words. - Search exactly as is (+)
Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query[ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query[ ca history ] . But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing. - The OR operator
Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example,[ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas[ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)
Learn about a few special search features to help you find exactly what you're looking for as quickly as possible.
Exceptions
Search is rarely absolute. Search engines use a variety of techniques to imitate how people think and to approximate their behavior. As a result, most rules have exceptions. For example, the queryExceptions to 'Every word matters'
- Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search
[ the who ] likely refers to the band; the query[ who ] probably refers to the World Health Organization -- Google will not ignore the word 'the' in the first query. - Synonyms might replace some words in your original query. (Adding + before a word disables synonyms.)
- A particular word might not appear on a page in your results if there is sufficient other evidence that the page is relevant. The evidence might come from language analysis that Google has done or many other sources. For example, the query
[ overhead view of the bellagio pool ] will give you nice overhead pictures from pages that do not include the word 'overhead.'
Punctuation that is not ignored
- Punctuation in popular terms that have particular meanings, like
[ C++ ] or[ C# ] (both are names of programming languages), are not ignored. - The dollar sign ($) is used to indicate prices.
[ nikon 400 ] and[ nikon $400 ] will give different results. - The hyphen - is sometimes used as a signal that the two words around it are very strongly connected. (Unless there is no space after the - and a space before it, in which case it is a negative sign.)
- The underscore symbol _ is not ignored when it connects two words, e.g.
[ quick_sort ] .
Search results options
If you want to filter and customize the search results you see, use the options along the side of the results page. For example, you can choose to just see blogs updated within the last 24 hours or photos of a certain size.How to use search options and tools
- On the side of your search results page, click a filtering option to customize the search results page you're looking at.
We'll automatically show you the tools and filtering options that are most relevant to your search.
To see more, click More and More search tools to see all the available filters and views you can apply to that search. Since your options will vary based on the search and the filters you've already used, you won't see all the options all the time. - Try clicking on two or more options to form a more complex, more focused filter.
- To go back to standard unfiltered Google results, click Reset tools at the bottom of the panel.
Filter results by type of content
The top group of options will filter results by the type of web content you'll see.- Everything: By default, your Google search will show unfiltered results that can include all the types of content below.
- Images: See only results from Google Images.
- News: See only results from Google News.
- Books: See only results from Google Books including reviews, excerpts, and where you can buy the book.
- Videos: See only video results using Google's Video Search.
- Blogs: See only results from Google Blog Search.
- Places: See only results from Google Place Pages.
- Shopping: See only results from Google Product Search. (With this option, you'll see results within the Product Search site rather than in a Google search results page.)
- Realtime: See only real-time updates from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Learn more about Google real-time search
- Discussions: See what people are saying in discussion groups, forums, and question-and-answer sites.
- Recipes: See only results for recipes. Customize and filter these results to show recipes with your ideal ingredients, cook time and calorie count. This feature is currently not available in all languages. Learn more about Recipe View
Customize your results by location
The location used to customize your results is clearly indicated on the left side of your results page. Our location detection technology will automatically set a location for you, but you can easily specify an alternate location.Filter results by other criteria
Based on your search and the Google property you've selected, you'll see a customized list of filtering tools. We'll automatically show you the tools that seem most relevant to your search, so you won't always see all of these tools. Here are a few tools that you might see:Publish date
Limit results according to when they were published on the Web. Google tries to estimate the publication date for a page by using information such as the date when Google first indexed the page. See the options- Any time: By default, your search results will not be filtered by date.
- Latest: Sometimes the top results that show up are a little dated, although they're still relevant. The Latest option shows you results that are both relevant and fresh. Google automatically optimizes the time period used for your filter to make sure that the most relevant and recent results are included. (This option is only available when Everything is selected in the first group of options.)
- Past 24 hours / Past week / Past month / Past year: Use these pre-defined ranges of times to find webpages. For instance, the Past 24 hours option will help you find information about current events.
- Custom range: This option lets you define your own date range. Enter the dates you want to use in the format mm/dd/yyyy, then click Search. This option works best for pages published after 2001; to find historical mentions of dates, try using the Timeline tool.
Personalization
Limit the results to content that is more personalized to you. For example, see content from your friends (Social) or content from a geographical area (Nearby). See the options- Social: If you're signed in to Google, see only social search results. You'll see publicly-accessible content from people in your social circle that is relevant to your search. The idea is that content from your friends and social contacts is often more relevant to you than content from strangers.
- Nearby: Only see results that might be especially relevant for your preferred location indicated on the side of your results page. You can easily specify your preferred location.
- Web History: Limit the results to pages you have or have not already visited. If you're signed in to your Google Account and have Web History enabled, you can use this tool to restrict your results to pages you either have, or haven't, visited in the past while Web History was enabled.
- Want to find something new? Try Not yet visited.
- Need to remember a helpful site from last month? Visited pages will focus your search.
Display options
This section lets you change the way results are displayed. The default Standard view shows you regular Google results, where each result is composed of the page title and a few lines of text (also known as the "snippet").See the options- Sites with images: See image thumbnails from the page alongside the snippet for each result. They can help you quickly identify whether the page is relevant to your search term. For example, if you see an image of a furry little critter when you search for [ mouse ], you can probably deduce that the page isn't talking about computer equipment.
- Translated foreign pages: Sometimes, the best results for your search are written in another language. Based on your search term, Translated foreign pages automatically chooses the best language (or languages) to search in, translates your search, and then translates the results back to the language you prefer to read. Our automatic language selection isn't perfect, of course, so if you'd like to search specific languages, select them in the panel above the results.
- Timeline: See results along a timeline, which is especially useful if you're researching information about a historical person or event. Click any section in the timeline to zoom in on that time period. To change the time range, click Search other dates above the timeline to enter new start and end dates. Alternatively, click the date links below the timeline to see results that mention that particular year, month, or day.
- Reading level: You can limit your search results to a specific reading level (Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced). Learn more about the Reading level tool.
Content type options
When you select a specific type of content like Videos or Realtime, you'll often see a set of tools that are unique to that selection. For example, if you select Images, you can filter image results by size, type, and color. Learn more about the search tools specific to Google Images.See definitions for your search term using Dictionary. You can also find synonyms, images, usage examples, and learn if the term is a word in other languages.
Discover more results
If you're ever unsure about the precise terms you should use for your search, start out with a broader search term, then use these tools to discover alternative search terms. The Something different option lets you find parallel searches that you might find interesting. See the options- Related searches: See related searches at the top of the results page. They'll stay there, even as you scroll up and down, so you can easily compare and contrast results for different related searches.
- Wonder wheel: This option visually presents connections between related searches and your search term as an interactive diagram. Click the different nodes in the diagram to see how searches can branch out.
- Something different: The bottom set of links on the side of the search results page includes alternative queries to help you discover webpages that are indirectly related to your search. Learn more about the "Something different" links
We hope these options help you explore and interact with your search results in useful ways. As we develop new ways to help you search, you'll see new or changed options appear.
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