Software/Hardware

Building a better query

For most Google searches, simply typing what you want to find does the job. If you want to refine your search, however, these suggestions from our quality team may help.

Use words likely to appear on the pages you want

USE [ Idaho luxury hotel ]
NOT [ a fancy place to stay in Idaho ]

USE [ tutorial ] [ introduction ] or [ overview ]
NOT [ help ]

Be specific

USE [ antique metal soldiers ]
NOT [ old toys ]

Be brief

Google limits your query to 10 words maximum
For best results, use a few very precise words

Use the uppercase term OR to create logical choices

[ lemur relocation program OR programs ]
[ vacation rental Oahu OR Maui ]

Use a minus sign ("-") to show only pages without specific words (do not include spaces)

[ green jaguar –football ]

Google ignores some common words. To force inclusion, use a "+" (do not include spaces)

[ +in +and out ]

To find only pages with a set of words in a specific order, put them in quotes

[ "to be or not to be" ]

Site: restricts your search to a specific site or domain and can be used to eliminate commercial results from your query

[ research fellows site:IBM.com ]
[ allergies site:.edu ]
[ volunteering site:.org ]
[ 1040 site:irs.gov ]

Use link: to see what sites link to a specific page

[ link:googlestore.com ]

Use info: for links to more info about a page (e.g., pages that mention the URL)

[ info:google.com ]

Enter an address with city and state or zip code for a link to a map

[ 2400 Bayshore Mountain View CA ]

Search specialized areas like Google Groups for advice and suggestions or Google Images for photos

Advanced Operators

Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.

Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of operators is available on the Basics of Search page. Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page, but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.

Alternate query types

cache:		If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page. The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.

link:		The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.

related:		The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar.

info:		The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.

Other information needs

define:

The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).

stocks:

If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.)

This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.

Query modifiers

site:		If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.

allintitle:		If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.

intitle:		If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].

allinurl:		If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url. Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.

inurl:		If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word. Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].