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 (shown below) by clicking the "Advanced Search" link on the Google home page.

With Advanced Search, you can search only for pages:

• that contain ALL the search terms you type in
• that contain the exact phrase you type in
• that contain at least one of the words you type in
• that do NOT contain any of the words you type in
• written in a certain language
• created in a certain file format
• that have been updated within a certain period of time
• that contain numbers within a certain range
• within a certain domain, or website
• that are available for anyone to use, share or modify, even commercially
• that 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.

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:

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:

"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:

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:

Numrange search

The numrange operator searches for results containing numbers in a given range. You can use Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates ( Willie Mays 1950..1960) to weights ( 5000..10000 kg truck). Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms, and 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:

Fill in the blanks "*" search

Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to 'fill in the blank' for you. You can do this by adding an asterisk "*" in the part of the sentence or question that you want filled in.

For example, here's how you'd search for who invented the parachute:

Other advanced search features

• Language: specify in which language you'd like your results.
• File format: specify the file format you'd like in your results
• Date: restrict your results to the past three, six, or twelve 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.
• Usage rights: specify the rights of usage you'd like in your results
• SafeSearch: Eliminates adult sites from search results. [ Learn more. ]
• Page-specific: Specify pages that are similar or link to your page
• Technology Search: find information related to Apple Macintosh, BSD Unix, Linux or Microsoft.