Web Search Help

Advanced Search Made Easy

Once you know the basics of Google search, you might want to try Advanced Search, which offers numerous options for making your searches more precise and getting more useful results.

You can reach this page by clicking (no surprise) the Advanced Search link next to the search box on the Google home page. You can also visit the page directly at http://www.google.com/advanced_search

You can do a lot more with Google search than just typing in search terms. With Advanced Search, you can search only for pages that...

contain ALL the search terms you type in
contain the exact phrase you type in
contain at least one of the words you type in
do NOT contain any of the words you type in
is written in a certain language
is created in a certain file format
was updated within a certain period of time
contain numbers within a certain range
within a certain domain, or website
don't contain "adult" material

Advanced search operators

You can also improve your searches by adding "operators" to your search terms in the Google search box, or selecting them from the Advanced Search page.

Types of advanced search operators include:

Include search
Synonym search
OR search
Domain search
Numrange search
Other advanced search features

Complete list of advanced operators

Print-and-save Google Cheat Sheet

"+" search

Google ignores common words and characters such as where, the, how, and other digits and letters which slow down your search without improving the results. We'll indicate if a word has been excluded by displaying details on the results page below the search box.

If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a space before the "+" sign.)

For example, here's how to ensure that Google includes the "I" in a search for Star Wars, Episode I:

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Synonym search

If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term.

For example, here's how to search for food facts and nutrition and cooking information:

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"OR" search

To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms.

For example, here's how to search for a vacation in either London or Paris:

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Domain search

You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.

For example, here's how you'd find admission information on the Stanford University site:

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Numrange search

Feel like a number? Numrange searches for results containing numbers in a given range. Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms. You can use Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates ( Willie Mays 1950..1960) to weights ( 5000..10000 kg truck). But be sure to specify a unit of measurement or some other indicator of what the number range represents.

For example, here's how you'd search for a DVD player that costs between $50 and $100:

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Other advanced search features

Google Local: Find products and services in a specific U.S. town or zip code.
Language: Specify in which language you'd like your results.
Technology Search: Find information related to Apple Macintosh, BSD Unix, Linux or Microsoft.
Date: Restrict your results to the past three, six, or 12 month periods.
Occurrences: Specify where your search terms occur on the page - anywhere on the page, in the title, or in the URL.
Domains: Search only a specific website, or exclude that site from your search.
SafeSearch: Eliminates adult sites from search results. Learn more

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