Here's a little cheat sheet for some of the most useful Google Search operators, including the ones we've already mentioned:
Operator | How to Use It | Examples |
---|---|---|
* (Asterisk) | Add the asterisk as a placeholder for an unknown word or fact | Find quotes that start with "Life is like a": Life is like a * |
" (Quotation marks) | Look for an exact word or phrase by putting it in quotes | Find pages that talk about the book One Hundred Years of Solitude: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" |
- (Hyphen) | Use a hyphen before a word or site to exclude it from your search results | Omit Wikipedia pages from search results: -site:wikipedia.org. Narrow results to the band R.E.M., not rapid eye movement: R.E.M. -sleep |
.. (Two Periods) | Separate numbers with two periods without spaces to search for numbers within that range | Find phones that cost between $200 and $400: Android phone $200..$400. Find computer milestones that took place between 1950 and 2000: "computer milestones" 1950..2000 |
allintitle: | Use allintext:[search phrase] to find pages with all of those words in the title of the page | Show pages that have both "Apple" and "notebook" in the title: allintitle:Apple notebook |
allintext: | Use allintext:[search phrase] to find pages with all of those words in the body of the page | Show pages that mention Roth, IRA, and investments in the body: allintext:Roth IRA investments |
allinurl: | Use allinurl:[search phrase] to find pages with all of those words in the URL | Show pages that have both "Microsoft" and "Surface" in the URL: allinurl:Microsoft Surface |
AROUND(n) | Add AROUND(n) between two search terms to find pages where those terms are written on the page in close proximity. The number you choose in place of n sets the maximum distance between the terms. This is useful for finding relationships between two search terms. | Find pages that mention Facebook and Microsoft in the same sentence or paragraph: Facebook AROUND(7) Microsoft |
site: | Use site:[URL] to limit search results to a specific website | Find pages on blogbyte that mention php: site:blogbyte.in php |
related: | Use related:[URL] to find sites similar to a specific website | Find websites similar to google: related:google.com |
filetype: | Use filetype:[suffix] to limit results to a certain file format, such as PDF or DOC. | Find keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Office that are shared as PDF: _filetype:pdf office keyboard shortcuts___ |
intitle: | Use intitle:[search phrase] to search for pages that have at least one of your search words in the title | Show pages that have "Apple" or "notebook" or both in the title: intitle:Apple notebook |
intext: | Use intext:[search phrase] to search for pages that have at least one of your search words in the body of the page | Show pages that mention Roth, IRA, and/or investments in the body: intext:Roth IRA investments |
inurl: | Use inurl:[search phrase] to search for pages that have at least one of your search words in the URL | Show pages that mention Roth, IRA, and/or investments in the body: intext:Roth IRA investments |
OR | Perform two search queries at the same time by separating your search terms with OR. This will find pages that have one of several words. | Search for pages that reference "Google Drive," "Dropbox," or "OneDrive": "Google Drive" OR Dropbox OR OneDrive |
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