Google Quick Help
Search Strategies
|
Boolean Searching |
Default AND to narrow | Example:
physician assisted suicide |
| OR to combine synonymous terms | Example: bipolar OR manic depressive | |
| - to eliminate terms | Example: dolphins -football | |
| Nesting | ( ) to nest synonymous terms when the search statement also contains the default AND Boolean Operator. | Example: hate crimes (gays OR homosexuals) |
|
Phrase Searching |
" " | Example: "physician assisted suicide" |
| Truncation | Stemming Technology | Automatic |
| Wildcard | * Use in place of common words in long search statements to work around limit of 10 search terms/syntaxes. | Example: "* * nothing * * * blood toil tears * sweat" Churchill "world war" |
| Stop words | Use + to force common words if important for the search. | Example: "+to +be +or +not +to +be" |
|
Field Searching |
Field Searching is one of the most effective ways to narrow and customize a search in Google. Special syntaxes are used to designate various types of field searches. | See below, Useful Special Syntaxes and Mixing Syntaxes |
| Synonymous Terms | ~ immediately before a key term will search for synonyms. | Example: ~homosexuals |
Google Special Syntaxes
| intitle: | This syntax restricts a search to titles of Web sites; it can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. An alternative syntax, allintitle: looks for all the words in the title of a Web site; allintitle: does not mix well with other syntaxes. | Example: intitle:"bob marley" "popular music" |
| inurl: | This syntax restricts a search to the URLs of Web sites. It can be an effective way to find sites from within a domain, directory or path; it can also be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. See site: below. | Example: intitle:"civil
liberties" terrorism inurl:cnn Example: intitle:turkey intitle:carve inurl:help Example: inurl:butterflygardening |
| site:
|
This syntax allows you to
limit a search to a site or a top level domain. It is similar to inurl: but
will not search for a site within a subdirectory (i.e., anything beyond the
/). Some advantages to using inurl: over site: are: You can use inurl: by itself without using any other search terms or syntaxes. You can use inurl: to search subdirectories. |
Example: intitle:"hate
crimes" site:gov Example: intitle:"hate crimes" OR "gay bashing" site:org Example: intitle:"binge drinking" site:edu |
| intext: | This syntax searches for words in only the text of a Web site. It ignores link text, URLs and titles which makes it a useful syntax for finding search words that are commonly used in URLs or links. It can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. | Example: intext:html site:edu Example: intext:google.com inurl:help |
| inanchor: | This syntax searches for text in a Web site's link anchors (i.e., the text you click on get to a Web site). Since the anchor text for a link is usually descriptive of the page it links to, the inanchor: syntax can be a useful way to limit a search to relevant sites. It can be effectively combined with other syntaxes to customize a search. | Example: inanchor:"Google
Help" Example: inanchor:AIDS inanchor:grants site:gov For a fun experiment, try typing your name as a phrase with the inanchor: syntax! |
| link: | This syntax returns a list of Web sites linking to a specific URL. The link: syntax can not be combined with another syntax. | Example: link:www.linccweb.org |
| daterange: | This syntax allows you to
limit a search to a specific date or range of dates that a site was indexed
by Google (this is not the same as the date the site was created.) The only
drawback to this syntax is that it works with the Julian Calendar, not the
Gregorian Calendar (the one we use). To use daterange: first go to the
Julian Date Converter at the U.S. Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html). |
Example: intitle:"george bush"
daterange:2452389-2452389 (this would search for April 24, 2002) |
| filetype: | This syntax searches for specific filename extensions. Google searches for PowerPoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), and Word (.doc) documents as well as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe Postscript (.ps) and Rich Text Format (.rtf). | Example: intitle:"hate crimes"
filetype:pdf Example: intitle:google filetype:doc Example: intitle:"date rape" site:edu filetype:ppt |
| related: | This syntax searches for Web sites related or similar to a specified URL. This is a good way to retrieve categories or types of Web sites. | Example: related:google.com Example: related:www.linccweb.org |
| info: | This syntax provides a page of links to more information about a specified URL including a link to the page's cache, a list of Web sites that link to the specified URL, a list of Web sites related to the specified URL and Web sites that contain the specified URL. | Example: info:cnn.com |
Sample Search on Date Rape
|
Google Search Statement |
Results (February 2006) |
Search Strategies |
| date rape | 24,400,000 | Default Boolean AND search. |
| "date
rape" |
4,920,000 | Phrase search. |
|
intitle:"date rape" |
66,600 | The phrase must be in the title. |
| intitle:"date rape" inurl:cnn | 11 | Site must be from CNN. |
| intitle:"date rape" site:edu | 357 | Site must be from an educational institution. |
| intitle:"date rape" alcohol site:edu | 161 | The word alcohol is added to the previous search. |
|
intitle:"date rape" inanchor:statistics
|
892 | The word statistics must be an anchor (clickable) in the site. |
| "date rape" site:edu filetype:ppt | 106 | Site must be a PowerPoint presentation from an educational institution. |
Sample Search on the Role of Women in Ancient Greece
|
Google Search Statement |
Results (February 2006) |
Search Strategies |
| women ancient greece | 24,300,000 | Default Boolean AND search. |
| women "ancient greece" | 4,710,000 | Default Boolean AND and phrase search. |
| (women OR woman) "ancient greece" | 5,170,000 | Boolean OR, default Boolean AND and phrase search. |
| ~women "ancient greece" | 4,800,000 | Synonymous terms for women and phrase search |
| "role +of women" "ancient greece" | 299,000 | Two phrases with forced stop word and Boolean AND search. |
| intitle:women "ancient greece" | 60,100 | Women must be in the title, Boolean AND and phrase search.. |
| women "ancient greece" inurl:pbs | 124 | Site must be from PBS. |
| women "ancient greece" site:edu | 204,000 | Site must be from an educational institution. |
| "role +of women" "ancient greece" site:org | 703 | Site must be from an organization. |
| women "ancient greece" site:edu filetype:ppt | 87 | Site must be a PowerPoint presentation from an education institution. |
Copyright @ 2003--2006
Valencia Community College
West Campus LRC
Last revised 15 February 2006 by
Judi DeLisle