|
type |
description |
effect |
|
individual
words |
each word must
be on pages, or in links pointing to pages that show up in
the results |
gordon brown
will
ask Google for pages that have the words "brown" & "gordon"
on them somewhere. |
|
words in
quotes |
words in
quotes appear next to each other as a phrase in the result
pages |
"gordon brown"
will
ask Google for pages where the exact phrase "Gordon Brown"
appears. |
asterisk
between words |
second word
appears 1, 2 or 3 words after the first word |
margaret *
thatcher
will bring up pages with "Margaret Hilda Thatcher",
"Margaret and husband Denis Thatcher" |
tilde
(~)
before word |
finds pages
with related words |
~teacher
will
find pages with teacher, teach, taught, education etc. |
minus (-)
before word |
makes sure
pages containing that word are omitted from results |
hermits -herman's
will
eliminate the pop group from a search for isolated loners. |
OR
between words |
ensures either
or both words appear on pages in search results |
tourism
expenditure OR revenue
will help get
stories about money spent by tourists.
tourism
expenditure OR revenue scotland OR scottish OR Glasgow OR
edinburgh
will gives
several options aimed at capturing Scottish tourism, in one
search |
site:
before address or full/partial domain name |
makes sure
results come from specified address or domain |
tourism
site:scotland.gov
will restrict a search for tourism to the scotish executive
website
tourism
site:ac.uk
will restrict the search to British universities
scotland
holiday
site:profiles.myspace.com
OR site:bebo.com OR site:facebook.com OR site:xanga.com
will
restrict the search to social networking sites |
filetype:
before a data file extension |
ensures a
certain kind of document appears in a search |
tourism
site:scotland.gov filetype:xls
will
find spreadsheets mentioning tourism from the Scottish
Executive.
Other file
types include pdf, ppt and doc |
|
inurl: |
places a word
in the web addresses of pages suggested by Google |
"time travel"
inurl:faq
might get you quick easy answers on a tricky subject
"david
bowie" inurl:gallery
may get you pages with images of Bowie |
|
Other Google advanced search operators
|
