Advanced search terms

Question 1

OR

E.g., jobs OR gates / jobs | gates

Answer 1

Search for X or Y. This will return results related to X or Y, or both. Note: The pipe (|) operator can also be used in place of “OR.”

Question 2

AND

E.g., jobs AND gates

Answer 2

Search for X and Y. This will return only results related to both X and Y. Note: It doesn’t really make much difference for regular searches, as Google defaults to “AND” anyway. But it’s very useful when paired with other operators.

Question 3

-

E.g., jobs -apple

Answer 3

Exclude a term or phrase. In our example, any pages returned will be related to jobs but not Apple (the company).

Question 4

*

E.g., steve * apple

Answer 4

Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase. Google treats the asterisk (*) as a placeholder for 1 or more words – it can also be referred to as a single or multiple word wildcard operator, because Google treats the asterisk as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) for which it tries to find the best match(es). Essentially, Google “fills in the blanks” wherever there is an asterisk.

Question 5

( )

E.g., (ipad OR iphone) apple

Answer 5

Group multiple terms or search operators to control how the search is executed.

Question 6

$

E.g., ipad $329

Answer 6

Search for prices. Also works for Euro (€), but not GBP (£)

Question 7

define:

E.g., define:entrepreneur

Answer 7

A dictionary built into Google, basically. This will display the meaning of a word in a card-like result in the SERPs.

Question 8

cache:

e.g., cache:apple.com

Answer 8

Returns the most recent cached version of a web page (providing the page is indexed, of course).

Question 9

filetype:

E.g., apple filetype:pdf / apple ext:pdf

Answer 9

Restrict results to those of a certain filetype. E.g., PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT, etc. Note: The “ext:” operator can also be used—the results are identical.

Question 10

site:

Example: site:apple.com

Answer 10

Limit results to those from a specific website.

Question 11

related:

Example: related:apple.com

Answer 11

Find sites related to a given domain.

Question 12

intitle:

Example: intitle:apple

Answer 12

Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the title. In our example, any results containing the word “apple” in the title tag will be returned.

Question 13

allintitle:

Example: allintitle:apple iphone

Answer 13

Similar to “intitle,” but only results containing all of the specified words in the title tag will be returned.

Question 14

inurl:

Example: inurl:apple

Answer 14

Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the URL. For this example, any results containing the word “apple” in the URL will be returned.

Question 15

allinurl:

Example: allinurl:apple iphone

Answer 15

Similar to “inurl,” but only results containing all of the specified words in the URL will be returned.

Question 16

intext:

Example: intext:apple

Answer 16

Find pages containing a certain word (or words) somewhere in the content. For this example, any results containing the word “apple” in the page content will be returned.

Question 17

allintext:

Example: allintext:apple iphone

Answer 17

Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned.

Question 18

AROUND(X)

Example: apple AROUND(4) iphone

Answer 18

Proximity search. Find pages containing two words or phrases within X words of each other. For this example, the words “apple” and “iphone” must be present in the content and no further than four words apart.

Question 19

weather:

Example: weather:san francisco

Answer 19

Find the weather for a specific location. This is displayed in a weather snippet, but it also returns results from other “weather” websites.

Question 20

weather:

Example: weather:san francisco

Answer 20

Find the weather for a specific location. This is displayed in a weather snippet, but it also returns results from other “weather” websites.

Question 21

stocks:

Example: stocks:aapl

Answer 21

See stock information (i.e., price, etc.) for a specific ticker.

Question 22

map:

Example: map:silicon valley

Answer 22

Force Google to show map results for a locational search.

Question 23

movie:

Example: movie:steve jobs

Answer 23

Find information about a specific movie. Also finds movie showtimes if the movie is currently showing near you.

Question 24

in

Example: $329 in GBP

Answer 24

Convert one unit to another. Works with currencies, weights, temperatures, etc.

Question 25

source:

Example: apple source:the_verge

Answer 25

Find news results from a certain source in Google News.