Monday, October 15, 2018

Google Search Syntax 2 - Search Operators

As already discussed in our previous post on Google search syntax that helps in getting the most relevant and required results. This post further assists you in finding what you need that on other hand are not found using earlier syntax methods i.e., by using search operators. Using these search operators which are either a word or words or symbols in your search query you can see / get more controlled results. Worry not about the list, because the advanced search page is always handy for you to assist you in generating many of these searches.

Be noted that a search operator must be used without any spaces.
Search for an exact word or phrase

"search query"
Use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This option is handy when searching for song lyrics or a line from literature.

"imagine all the people"
Tip: Only use this if you're looking for a very precise word or phrase, because otherwise you could be excluding helpful results by mistake.
Exclude a word

-query
Add a dash (-) before a word or site to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for synonyms like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.
jaguar speed -car or pandas -site:wikipedia.org
Tip: You can also exclude results based on other operators, like excluding all results from a specific site.
Search within a site or domain

site:query
If you are looking for more results from a certain website, include site: in your query. For example, you can find all mentions of "olympics" on the New York Times website like this:

olympics site:nytimes.com
olympics site:.gov
Tip: Also search within a specific top-level domain like .org or .edu or country top-level domain like .de or .jp.
Search for pages that link to a URL

link:query
Using the link: operator, you can find pages that link to a certain page. For example, you can find all the pages that link to google.com.

link:google.com
link:google.com/images
Tip: You can also search for links to specific pages, like google.com/images.
Search for pages that are similar to a URL

related:query
To find sites that are similar to a URL you already know, use the related: operator. For example, when you search for related sites to the New York Times, you'll find other news publication sites you may be interested in.

related:nytimes.com
Include a "fill in the blank"

query * query
Use an asterisk (*) within a query as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms. Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase.

"a * saved is a * earned"
Search for either word

query OR query
If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms.

world cup location 2014 OR 2018
"world cup location 2014" OR "world cup location 2018"
Tip: Enclose phrases in quotes to search for either one of several phrases.
Search for a number range

number..number
Separate numbers by two periods without spaces (..) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements.

camera $50..$100
daytona 500 winners ..2000
Tip: Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an upper maximum or a lower minimum.

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