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| The absolutely best tutorial on how to use all of
Google's potential. Easy to use, simple to navigate, this is a little
jewel for both the novice and advanced search user. The definitive
up-to-date guide on how to best leverage the Google search engine and all
of its features in a simple and easy to access format. Recommended. | |
| Nancy Blachman's Google Guide is by far the best
guide to using Google, for beginners & more intermediate users, that
I've seen so far. I see great potential here for plopping patrons down
with this self-guided tutorial, instead of the 20 minute "This is Google,
this is how you search" lecture. |
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| Want to Get Started Immediately? |
If you're a novice, go straight to Part I: Query Input.
If you're an experienced user, start with one of the following links. These pages may appear to describe basic concepts, but if you read carefully, you'll discover helpful insights into how Google works and how to use it more effectively.
Part I: Query Input
• Interpreting Your Query
• Crafting Your Query
(Using Special Characters)• Sharpening Your Query
(Advanced Search)
• Using Search Operators
(Advanced Operators)• How Google Works
• Google Answers
• Feature History• Prototypes & Demos
(Google Labs)Appendix:
• Creating a Link to Search Results
In this tutorial, you can learn
Google Guide's home page includes Google's search box followed by a search tip from Google Guide. Clicking on the icon or the title below the search box and above the search tip will display more information about the tip.
How to Use the Google Guide Tutorial?
If you have time, read all of Google Guide and work through the examples and exercises. Otherwise, look at the Table of Contents and read or scan the pages or sections that you suspect will be most helpful to you.
Why Take the Google Guide Tutorial?
Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.
Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.
Try the examples, work the exercises, and click on the links (usually underlined) to see Google in action and to learn more about a topic.
Since the web and Google's algorithms and features constantly evolve, your results may be different from those shown in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, clicking the left mouse button on an example or a link to a page not in Google Guide, will display the results in a new window. Clicking on a link that points to another section in this tutorial, will display the contents of the associated page in the same window. You can make the contents of the linked page appear in a new window by:
This tutorial assumes you know how to use a web browser. Although this tutorial is for people new to Google, it contains information of interest to those who have experience with Google or another search engine. Unless you're familiar with all of Google's features, you'll learn something by taking this tutorial.
Who will Benefit from Google Guide?
Practically anyone who uses Google, including students, teachers, researches, journalists, consumers, business people, scientists, web developers, Google employees, purchasing agents, librarians, people looking for jobs, health care professionals, hobbyists, vacationers, and authors. Want a job at Google? Review Google Guide before you apply.
How Much Time Will the Google Guide Tutorial Take?
This online Google tutorial will occupy you from 0.5 to 8 hours, depending on how many sections you elect to skip, and how many of the examples and problems you work through. Most people spend about half an hour at a time, and two hours total.
Near the top of each page is a navigation bar. The current section and its subsections are displayed in blue.
Click on any name in the navigation bar to be taken to the corresponding section.
What are the Radio Buttons Below the Search Box for?
Enter a query in the search box at the bottom of any page on Google Guide, select the WWW radio button, and press the ENTER key or click on the "Google Search" button to search the World Wide Web. Enter your query and select the GOOGLEGUIDE.COM button when you want to restrict your search to just pages on Google Guide's web site.
Why did I first name this tutorial Google ~Guide? Putting a tilde in front of a search term (with no space in between) effectively turns that term into any of its synonyms. The tilde is known as synonym operator. So, if you search for "Google ~Guide," Google will find Google Guide as well as other Google tutorials.
History of Google Guide
Jerry Peek, author of Unix Power Tools, gave me the idea of writing a book about using Google. I found the idea appealing because I was a fan of Google, was interested in learning how to use it better, there were no other books about Google when I started writing, and with such a job, I could work flexible hours. I created Google Guide and gave seminars on searching with Google to get feedback from users.
Katie Conley, an editor at Osborne/McGraw Hill, approached Fritz Schneider about writing a book about Google. He had written JavaScript: The Complete Reference for Katie. Because of my having mentioned I was writing a book and creating an online tutorial to some Google engineers, Fritz learned of my Google projects. We teamed up so that we could divide the work and write a book more quickly. Eric Fredericksen, a co-worker of Fritz's, joined us. How to Do Everything with Google was published in November of 2003.
How is Google Guide Different from How to Do Everything with
Google?
The book How to Do Everything with Google, which I co-authored with Google engineers Fritz Schneider and Eric Fredricksen, covers material similar to Google Guide, but with many more examples, more detailed descriptions, and more about the history and development of features and services in Google. In other words, How to Do Everything with Google is more comprehensive than Google Guide.
To get ideas of what to include in Google Guide, I give free and inexpensive seminars on searching with Google. I've been using Google since the spring of 1999, when Google was less than one year old. I've written over a half dozen tutorial and reference books, including How to Do Everything with Google, Mathematica: A Practical Appraoch, Mathematica Graphics Guidebook, Mathematica Quick Reference, Maple V Quick Reference, and Putting Your Heart Online. I'm president and founder of Variable Symbols, a company that specializes in software training and consulting. I obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham, U.K., an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where I taught for eight years.
| Table of Contents |
| My Favorite Features |
In addition to searching the web, you can use Google to find specific information that is available offline or on specialized sites. In this page I describe features that enable me to find more quickly things I want.
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| Shortcuts |
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| Special Searches |
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To learn more about a particular service or feature, click on the title of a section, which links to a more detailed description in Google Guide, http://www.googleguide.com/, or read How to Do Everything with Google.
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I often access Google from the Toolbar when I use Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.0 or a more recent version or from Googlebar when I use Mozilla. For Mac OS X users, Apple's Safari web browser includes Google search and my other favorite Toolbar features.
My favorite Toolbar features include
| Feature | What it can do |
| Search Box | Access Google's search technology from your browser toolbar. |
| Highlight | Highlight terms on the current page. |
| Pop-up Blocker | Stop annoying pop-up windows (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar). |
Deskbar - toolbar.google.com/deskbar/
Access Google from your Windows deskbar toolbar even when you're not running a web browser.
Browser Buttons - www.google.com/options/buttons.html
I often search using Google browser buttons when I don't have access to a Google Toolbar or Deskbar.
Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.
Google provides shortcuts that seem intuitively obvious once I've learned about them.
Instead of visiting an on-line map-providing service, just enter a US address into Google. You can also copy and paste addresses, even ones with embedded carriage returns, into Google's search box. When Google recognizes your query as a location, the results page includes links to map providers for that location.
Click on either the Yahoo! Maps link or the MapQuest link to view a map showing Google's headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy in Mountain View, California.
Clicking on a map-provider link takes you to a map showing the location result and links to driving directions.
Just enter a company or person's name and a city, state, or zip code in the standard web search box. For example,
It's just a click away. If Google finds any dictionary definitions for your search terms, it shows those words as underlined links or includes a definition link in the statistics bar section of the results page (located below the search box showing your query). For example, learn what co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt mean when they say they run Google as a triumvirate.
When you include define, what is, or what are in your query in front of a word, phrase, or acronym, Google displays one Glossary definition above your search results. In February of 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, a company that makes it easy for you to create your own blog. What's a blog? Let's ask Google to define the term.
But it's free and may be good enough for your purposes. It can add up a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or evaluate some other mathematical expression. Simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in Google's web search box and hit the ENTER key or click the "Google Search" button. For example, add up some receipts.
Keeping Abreast of the News - News Alerts
Rather than searching Google News every day to find out what's new, I set up Google News Alerts to send me email when news articles appear on the web.
I've also set up Google Alert, a third-party service available at http://www.googlealert.com/, to keep up with the latest news about Google, How to Do Everything with Google, and Google Guide. Google Alert is more flexible and returns more results than Google's News Alerts.
When Google was first launched, it returned only pages that matched all your query terms exactly. To increase the number of results, Google now returns pages that match variants of your search terms. For example,
finds pages that contain words that are similar to some or all of your search terms, e.g., "child," "children," or "children's," "bicycle" "bicycles," "bicycle's," "bicycling," or "bicyclists," and "helmet" or "helmets." Google calls this feature word variations or automatic stemming.
Disable automatic stemming, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of your search term(s), by preceding each term that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you want to see pages that only mention one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, precede the word "book" by a + sign.
If you want to search for pages that contain a phrase or proper name and not variations, enclose your search terms in quotes (" "). For example,
finds pages containing exactly the phrase "Larry Page." So this query would find pages mentioning Google's co-founder Larry Page, but not pages containing "Larry has a home page" or "Congressional page Larry Smith." The query
(without quotes) would find pages containing any of "Larry Page," "Larry has a home page," or "Congressional page Larry Smith."
Where are your Search Terms on a Page?
When Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with my query, or if I can't find the information I'm seeking on the current version of the page, I look at the cached version.
Click on the Cached link to view Google's cached version of the page with the query terms highlighted.
Note: Internet Explorer users may view a page with any word(s) highlighted, not just search terms, by using the highlight feature of the Google Toolbar, which I mentioned above.
I never would have guessed that I would be listing Google advertising among my favorite features. I'm both pleased as a user and as an advertiser. Ads have led me to useful information that I might not have otherwise found so easily and my ads have steared thousands of interested users to my Google tutorial for a minimal cost.
Google's approach to ads is similar to its approach to search results: the ads must deliver useful links, or the ads are removed.
Can't Find What You Want? Try Google Answers
Having trouble creating a query to find the information you seek? Don't have time to research the topic yourself? Consider asking Google Answers, which, for a fee as little as US$2.50, provides assistance from researchers with expertise in online searching.
Reluctant to use Google Answers? Think you can find the information you want if you search a bit longer? If you feel that way, you're not alone. Nevertheless, many people, including me, who have asked questions of Google Answers are now fans of the service. Not only has it saved me time, but the answers have been packed with useful information and links. It's a wonderful service that's well worth your checking out, whether you're a novice or an experienced searcher. I'm grateful to Google Answers researchers for their feedback and suggestions for improving Google Guide.
For more features and services as well as how Google works, read Google Guide or How to Do Everything with Google.
I was interviewed on WebTalk Radio March 20, 2004 about my favorite Google features. You can listen to the webcast audio of the interview.
| Part I: Query Input |
Google is easy to use, but the more you know about how it works, its features, its capabilities, and how it displays results, the better it can serve your needs.
In this segment, you will learn how to:
| Entering a Query |
If you have little or no experience with Google, read on. Otherwise, skip to the next section, titled "Go to the First Result."
If your browser isn't pointing to Google, visit Google's home page by entering any one of the following web addresses into your browser:
When I refer to a web address in this tutorial, I omit the "http://" prefix. For a description of web addresses, see the section "Anatomy of a Web Address."
What is a query? A query is a set of words that you hope you will find in the search results listings. In Google Guide, I sometimes call a query search terms.
To enter a query, type in descriptive words into Google's search box. You can use either the search box on Google's home page (shown above) or the search box that always appears at the top of a Google results page (shown in the next screen shot).
Now press the ENTER key or click on the "Google Search" button to view your search results, which include links to pages that match your query along with relevant snippets (excerpts) with your search terms in a boldface.
This example isn't just a picture of what the search box looks like. If you click the "Google Search" button, you'll go to the Google results page for a search on the words "california" and "driving." Feel free to edit what's in the search box and run other searches.
The results page is full of information and links most of which relate to your query. In this screen shot, to the right of Google's search results appear sponsored links, which are paid advertisements. Results Google considers to be most relevant to your query are shown first.
To view a page listed in your search results, click on the page title, the first line in each result. Any of your query words that appear in the title will be in boldface, and the title will be underlined, i.e., it's a link to the web page. Note that when you position your mouse pointer on the title, the URL for the web page will appear in your browser's status bar, at the bottom of many browsers. Under the title will be excerpts that include one or more of your query words: your query words will be in boldface. These excerpts are known as snippets. In our example, click on the California Driving -- A Survival Guide link, which appears just below the blue bar with the text "Searched the web for california driving," to view the corresponding California Driving Guide web page.
Your results for a search on "california driving" may be different from what you see here since Google is constantly searching the Web for new pages and adjusting its results algorithms.
| Going Directly to the First Result |
Click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button on Google's home page to go directly to the first result for your query. Instead of showing you a list of pages, Google sends you immediately to the result that may be most relevant to your query. For example, if you enter the query [ california driving ] (without the square brackets) and click the I'm Feeling Lucky button, Google will send you to the home page of Hamish Reid's wonderful California Driving Guide.
This example isn't just a picture of what a search box and the I'm Feeling Lucky button look like. In this example and in others like it throughout this tutorial, you can edit what's in the search box and run different searches.
The I'm Feeling Lucky button can save you the time it takes to review your results and then click on the first one. Use it when you're confident the page you want is the best fit for your query, which is usually the case when you're seeking very popular pages. For example, it's a safe bet that an I'm Feeling Lucky search for "Paul McCartney" (one of The Beatles) will send you to his home page www.paulmccartney.com.
Note: I'm Feeling Lucky doesn't consider the various sponsored links on the first results page, which are paid advertisements, when deciding where to take you. In other words, the I'm Feeling Lucky button will send you to what Google considers the most relevant result that is not a paid advertisement.
In the Section after the Exercises, we'll look at how to select search terms.
If the first line on the first result is "Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction," then click the back button on your browser and then search again for [ weapons of mass destruction ] (without the square brackets) but this time click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button.
Otherwise, click the back button on your browser, enter the words "cannot find" in front of "weapons of mass destruction" so in the search box are the words [ cannot find weapons of mass destruction ] and then click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button.
If you've followed the instructions, with luck, you'll see a page similar to the one on the left, which is a parody of the page on the right that a server may display when it isn't able to access the page you requested.
| Selecting Search Terms |
The search terms you enter and the order in which you enter them affect both the order and pages that appear in your search results. In the examples below, click on the similar ways of specifying various searches and note how the results differ.
For simplicity sake, this tutorial uses square brackets to denote Google's search box. For example, to search for a cheap hotel in Mykonos, I'll put the words "cheap," "hotel," and "Mykonos" in square brackets, [ cheap hotel Mykonos ], to indicate you should type those three words in Google's search box. You should not type the brackets, although Google will ignore them if you do type them.
Furthermore, in the examples that follow, I have linked each set of search terms to the results of doing a Google search on those terms. So clicking on [ cheap Mykonos hotel ] returns the Google results page for a search on those three words.
Use words likely to appear on the pages you want.
Avoid using a question as a query. For example, the query, [ where do I apply for a passport in New Zealand ], instructs Google to find pages containing all the terms. Such a query won't necessarily find pages answering your question. A better query might be [ passport apply New Zealand ].
USE [ passport apply New Zealand ]
NOT [ where do I apply for a passport in New Zealand ]
When Google detects very common words such as where, do, I, for, and a, known as stop words, it ignores them so Google may return relevant results. If you're seeking pages that include a stop word, e.g., "how the west was won," learn how to force Google to search for a complete phrase or a specific word in the section Crafting Your Query.
Avoid using words that you might associate with your topic, but you wouldn't expect to find on the designated page(s). For example, queries that include "articles about," "discussion of," "documentation on," and "pages about" are likely to return fewer results since information on the web is rarely labeled with such terms.
USE [ lasik
eye surgery ]
NOT [ documentation on lasik eye surgery ]
USE [ jobs product marketing Sunnyvale ]
NOT [ listings of product marketing jobs in Sunnyvale ]
Suppose you want to know how old someone is, such as Nelson Mandela (the former President of South Africa). Pages with "birthday" or "age" might be more than a year old. Searching for pages that include "Nelson Mandela" and "born" are likely to include either "Nelson Mandela born" or "Nelson Mandela was born" followed by his birth date. You can figure out his age from knowing when he was born.
USE [ Nelson Mandela born ]
NOT [ Nelson Mandela birthday ] nor [ Nelson Mandela age ]
Not sure what word or phrase is likely to appear on pages you want. Consider running a word or phrase popularity contest with Google Smackdown, which you can find at www.onfocus.com/googlesmack/down.asp. This third-party application reports which of two terms or phrases Google estimates to be more prevalent on the web (actually on more web pages that Google has included in its index).
Although not as popular according to Google Smackdown, in Google Guide I use "screen shot" because it's in my online dictionary and "screenshot" isn't.
Note: The section How Google Works describes how Google finds web pages and constructs an index.
Be specific: Use more query terms to narrow your results.
It's better to use a more precise, less ambiguous term than a common one to "flesh out the topic by including facets that interest you," notes Ned Fiedler in his book Internet Research, Second Edition (McFarland & Company, 2001).
Does your query have enough specific information for Google to determine unambiguously what you're seeking? If your query is too vague, it's unlikely to return relevant results. Consider, for example, the query [ java ]. What do you suppose Google includes in the first page of results? An island in Indonesia? A beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans? A computer network-oriented platform-independent programming language developed by Sun Microsystems?
USE [ Java
Indonesia ], [ java
coffee ], or [ java programming language ]
NOT [ java ]
How can you come up with more specific search terms? What do you know about the topic? Consider answers to the questions, who?, what?, where?, when?, why?, and how?
When you search for [ Tom Watson ], on the first page of results you get references to a member of Parliament, the golfer, the IBM executive, and a Populist Party candidate for President in 1900 and 1904. If you're searching for something that could return many different types of results, you should add a term that distinguishes among them. This way you'll get only results about the specific Tom Watson you're interested in.
USE [ Tom Watson
MP ], [ Tom
Watson golf ], or [ Tom
Watson IBM ]
NOT [ Tom
Watson ]
USE [ baby
development ] or [ baby
milestones ]
NOT [ babies ]
USE [ Betty Ford Center drug addiction ]
NOT [ Ford Center ]
USE [ quit smoking program ]
NOT [ program on quitting tobacco cigarette smoking
addiction ]
You don't have to correct your spelling.
When you enter: [ Anna Kornikova tennis ]
Google responds: Did you
mean: Anna Kournikova tennis
Note: Before clicking on Google's suggested spelling, consider whether it's what you want. Spelling checker, like people, make mistakes.
For more information on Google's spelling correction system, see the section Spelling Corrections.
Note: Even if you use the search tips described in Google Guide, you won't be able to access authoritative information that's available offline, e.g., old reference books, or is stored in specialized databases. For such information is not currently searchable with Google.
Next we'll look at how Google interprets your query.
For more information on the basics of Google search, visit www.google.com/help/basics.html.
| Interpreting Your Query |
Understanding how Google treats your search terms will help you devise effective queries and revise ineffective ones.
Google returns only pages that match all your search terms.
A search for [ compact fold-up bicycle ] finds pages containing the words "compact" and "fold-up" and "bicycle." Because you don't need to include the word AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND.
Because of implicit AND, you can focus your query by adding more terms.
[ compact lightweight fold-up bicycle ]
Note: If you want pages containing any (instead of all) of your search terms, use the OR operator, which is described in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly.
In his book Internet Research, Second Edition (McFarland & Company, 2001), Ned Fielden notes "Google simply matches strings of characters together and doesn't currently base inferences on uses of the language. Although this searching method has some drawbacks, it harnesses one of the fabulous powers of computers, [the ability] to sift through enormous heaps of data quickly and accurately."
If you search for ... Google won't find ... cheap inexpensive tv television effects influences children kids car automobile Calif OR CA California NYC New York City
Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms.
The query [ child bicycle helmet ] finds pages that contain words that are similar to some or all of your search terms, e.g., "child," "children," or "children's," "bicycle" "bicycles," "bicycle's," "bicycling," or "bicyclists," and "helmet" or "helmets." Google calls this feature word variations or automatic stemming. Stemming is a technique to search on the stem or root of a word that can have multiple endings.
If you only want to search for pages that contain some term(s) exactly, precede each such term with a plus sign (+) or enclose more than one term in quotes (" "). If you enclose a single term in quotes, Google ignores the quotes.
Note: When you want synonyms or variants that Google doesn't find, consider using either the OR or tilde operator, which is described in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, how, de, la, as well as certain single digits and single letters.
[ lyrics to the Dixie Chicks' songs ]
Note: Use the + operator or enclose more than one term in quotes (" ") to force Google to include terms it would otherwise ignore. I describe these basic operators and others in the next section, 6 Crafting Your Query.
If your query consists only of common words that Google normally ignores, Google will search for pages that match all the terms.
[ the who ]
Note: Find more pages mentioning the rock band The Who by entering [ "the who" ], a notation you'll learn about in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google limits queries to 10 words.
Google will indicate in a message below the query box at the top of the page if your query exceeds the 10-word limit.
Google favors results that have your search terms near each other.
Google considers the proximity of your search terms within a page. So the query [ snake grass ] finds pages about a plant of that name, while [ snake in the grass ] tends to emphasize pages about sneaky people. Although Google ignores the words "in" and "the," (these are stop words), Google gives higher priority to pages in which "snake" and "grass" are separated by two words.
[ snake grass ]
[ snake
in the grass ]
Note: The description of a wildcard in the section Craft Your Query may help you to understand how Google interprets queries containing words that it ignores.
Google gives higher priority to pages that have the terms in the same order as in your query.
[ New York library ]
[ new
library of York ]
Google is NOT case sensitive; it assumes all search terms are lowercase.
Ignoring case distinctions increases the number of results Google finds. A search for [ Red Cross ] finds pages containing "Red Cross," "red cross," or "RED CROSS."
[ Red Cross ], [ red cross ], and [ RED CROSS ] return the same results
There is no way to instruct Google to pay attention to case distinctions, e.g., you can't tell Google to find only occurrences of "Red Cross" where the first letter of each word is capitalized.
Note: The words "OR" and "AND" have special meanings if entered in uppercase letters.
Google ignores some punctuation and special characters, including , . ; ? [ ] ( ) @ / # .
[ Dr. Ruth ] returns the same results as [ Dr Ruth ]
What if you're seeking information that includes punctuation that Google ignores, e.g., an email address? Just enter the whole thing including the punctuation.
[ http://www.google.com/search?q=info@amazon.com ]
Be aware that web pages sometimes camouflage email addresses to make collecting such information difficult for spammers. For example, on some sites you'll find the @ sign in an email address replaced with the word "at."
Now we'll look at some special characters that Google doesn't ignore.
A term with an accent doesn't match a term without an accent and vice versa.
[ Côte
d'Ivoire ] matches "Côte d'Ivoire" but not "Cote d'Ivoire"
[ Cote d'Ivoire ] matches "Cote d'Ivoire" but not "Côte
d'Ivoire"
[ mañana ] matches "mañana" but not "manana"
[ manana ] matches "manana" but not "mañana"
If you want pages containing either "mañana" or "manana", use the OR operator, which is described in the section Crafting Your Query.
Note: For queries with accents, results vary depending on the language to which you are confining your search. For example, when I search for Martín (a Spanish name), the US version of Google returns only pages that include "Martín" but when I restrict my search to pages in Spanish, Google returns pages that include either "Martín" or "Martin."
Search all pages: [ Martín ] matches "Martín" but not "Martin"
Search
Spanish pages: [ Martín ] matches "Martín" and "Martin"
[ part-time ] matches "part-time," "part time," and
"parttime"
[ part time
] matches "part-time", "part time", and the words "part" and "time" not
necessarily together on the page
[ e-mail ] matches "e-mail," "email," and "e mail"
[
email ] matches "email"
If you aren't sure whether a word is hyphenated, go ahead and search for it with a hyphen.
The following table summarizes how Google interprets your query.
Search Behaviors Descriptions Implicit AND Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND. Exact Matching Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly. Word Variation Automatic Stemming Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms. Common-Word Exclusion Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results. 10-Word Limit Google limits queries to 10 words. Term Proximity Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near to each other. Term Order Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query. Case Insensitivity Google is case-insensitive; it assumes all search terms are lowercase. Ignoring Punctuation Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including , . ; ? [ ] ( ) @ / * Accented Letters A term with an accent doesn't match a term without an accent and vice versa.
Next we'll look at how to fine-tune your query.
For more information on the basics of Google search, visit www.google.com/help/basics.html.
| [ non-profit ] | non-profit | non profit | nonprofit |
| [ non profit ] | non-profit | non profit | nonprofit |
| [ nonprofit ] | non-profit | non profit | nonprofit |
| [ discounted designer linens ] |
| [ discount designer linen ] |
| [ designer linen discount ] |
| [ linen designer discount ] |
| [ linen discounted design ] |
| Crafting Your Query by using Special Characters |
By using special characters and operators, such as +, -, ~, .., OR, and quotation marks, you can fine-tune your search query and increase the accuracy of its results.
To search for a phrase, a proper name, or a
set of words in a specific order, put them in double quotes.
A query with terms in quotes finds pages containing the exact quoted
phrase. For example, [ "Larry Page" ] finds
pages containing exactly the phrase "Larry Page." So this query would find
pages mentioning Google's co-founder Larry Page, but not pages containing
"Larry has a home page" or "Congressional page Larry Smith." The query
[ Larry Page ] (without quotes) would find pages
containing any of "Larry Page," "Larry has a home page," or "Congressional
page Larry Smith."
[ "Larry Page" ] A quoted phrase is the most widely used type of special search syntax.
[ "close your eyes and I'll kiss
you" ] Use quotes to enter proper names.
[ "Julia Robinson" ] Find recommendations by searching for pages containing lists.
[ "favorite movies" ] Google will search for common words (stop
words) included in quotes, which it would otherwise ignore.
[ Larry
Page ]
[ "what you're looking for is already
inside you" Anne Lamott speech ]
[ "Rio de Janeiro" ]
[ "best non-fiction books" ]
USE [ "to be or not to be" ]
NOT [ to be
or not to be ]
USE [ "how to change oil" ]
NOT [ how to
change oil ]
Google doesn't perform automatic stemming on phrases, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of any of your search terms, which I described in the previous section Interpret Your Query. For example, if you want to see pages that mention only one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, enclose your search terms in quotes.
[ "favorite book" ]
Some teachers use quoted phrases to detect plagiarism. They copy a few unique and specific phrases into the Google search box, surround them with quotes, and see if any results are too similar to their student's supposedly original work. Find ways to detect and prevent plagiarism.
[ "ways to detect plagiarism" ]
[ "how to detect plagiarism" ]
You may include more than one quoted string in a query. All quoted query phrases must appear on a result page; the implied AND works on both individual words and quoted phrases.
[ "The Cat in the Hat" "Green Eggs and Ham" ]
Note: You'll learn how to find a page by specifying its title in the section Using Search Operators.
Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a "+" sign.
To force Google to search for a particular term, put a + sign operator in front of the word in the query. Note that you should not put a space between the + and the word, i.e. [ +The Beatles ], not [ + The Beatles ].
The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only those pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any term.
Want to learn about Star Wars Episode One? "I" is a stop word and is not included in a search unless you precede it with a + sign.
USE [ Star Wars
+I ]
NOT [ Star Wars
I ]
Google excludes common words in English and in other languages, such as "la" (which means "the" in Spanish) and "de" (which means "of" in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). So if Google ignores a term critical to your search, e.g., LA (common abbreviation for Los Angeles), put a + sign in front of it.
USE [ jobs in central +LA
California ]
NOT [ jobs in central LA California ]
The query [ jobs in central LA California ] finds jobs in central California, since the term "LA" is ignored because it's a stop word. Central California is at least a hundred miles (160 km) from central Los Angeles.
Disable automatic stemming, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of your search term(s), by preceding each term that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you want to see only pages mentioning one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, precede the word "book" by a + sign.
[ favorite +book ]
[ C++ ]
Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a "-" sign.
To find pages without a particular term, put a - sign operator in front of the word in the query.
The - sign indicates that you want to subtract
or exclude pages that contain a specific term. Do not put a space between the
- and the word, i.e. [ dolphins -football ] not
[ dolphins
So, to search for a twins support group in Minnesota, but not return pages relating to the Minnesota Twins baseball team:
USE [ twins support group Minnesota -baseball ]
NOT [ twins support group Minnesota ]
No pages containing the word "baseball" will be returned by the first query.
Find pages on "salsa" but not the dance nor dance classes.
USE [ salsa
-dance -class ]
NOT [ salsa ]
Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym operator.
The tilde (~) operator takes the word immediately following it and searches both for that specific word and for the word's synonyms. It also searches for the term with alternative endings. The tilde operator works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms. As with the + and - operators, put the ~ (tilde) next to the word, with no spaces between the ~ and its associated word, i.e., [ ~lightweight laptop ] not [ ~ lightweight laptop ].
Why did Google use tilde? In math, the "~" symbol means "approximately". The tilde tells Google to search for pages that approximately match the term that follows.
[ ~inexpensive ] matches "inexpensive," "cheap,"
"affordable," and "low cost"
[ ~run ] matches "run," "runner's," "running," as
well as "marathon"
Looking for a guide, help, tutorial, or tips on using Google?
[ google ~guide ]
Interested in food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information?
[ ~food ~facts ]
The synonym operator tends not to work well on well-defined terms.
[ ~cockroach ]
If you don't like the synonyms that Google suggests when you use the ~ operator, specify your own synonyms with the OR operator, which I describe next.
Note: Google offers a link to a dictionary and a thesaurus.
Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase OR or | (vertical bar).
The OR operator, which you may abbreviate with | (vertical bar), applies to the search terms immediately adjacent to it. The first example will find pages that include either "Tahiti" or "Hawaii" or both terms, but not pages that contain neither "Tahiti" nor "Hawaii."
[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ] or [ Tahiti | Hawaii ]
[ blouse OR shirt OR chemise ] or [ blouse | shirt | chemise ]
Note: If you write OR with a lowercase "o" or a lowercase "r," Google interprets the word as a search term instead of an operator.
Use quotes (" ") to group compound words and phrases together.
[
