Google search basics: Basic search help

Search is simple: just type whatever comes to mind in the search box, hit Enter or click on the
Google Search button, and Google will search the web for pages that are relevant to your query.

Most of the time you'll find exactly what you were looking for with just a basic query. However
the following tips can help you refine your technique to make the most of your searches.
Throughout the article, we'll use square brackets [ ] to signal queries, so [ black and white ]
is one query, while [ black ] and [ white ] are two.

Some basic facts

 Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used. There
are some exceptions.
 Search is always case insensitive. Searching for [ new york times ] is the same as
searching for [ New York Times ].
 With some exceptions, punctuation is ignored (that is, you can't search for @#$
%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters).

Guidelines for better search

 Keep it simple. If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as
much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place, or
product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and
the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators
or unusual syntax. Simple is good.
 Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not a
human; it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the
words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying [ my
head hurts ], say [ headache ], because that's the term a medical page will use. The
query [ in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? ] is
very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those
words. Instead, use the query [ bats are considered good luck in ] or even just
[ bats good luck ], because that is probably what the right page will say.
 Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word in a
query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the
results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main
advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need, the
results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine
your results on the next search. For example, [ weather cancun ] is a simple way to
find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer [ weather report
for cancun mexico ].
 Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get
relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,'
'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the word
has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the
pages you need. For example, [ celebrity ringtones ] is more descriptive and
specific than [ celebrity sounds ].
How to read search results

Google's goal is to provide you with results that are clear and easy to read. The diagram below
points out four features that are important to understanding the search results page:

1. The title: The first line of any search result is the title of the webpage.
2. The snippet: A description of or an excerpt from the webpage.
3. The URL: The webpage's address.
4. Cached link: A link to an earlier version of this page. Click here if the page you wanted
isn't available.

All these features are important in determining whether the page is what you need. The title is
what the author of the page designated as the best short description of the page.

The snippet is Google's algorithmic attempt to extract just the part of the page most relevant to
your query. The URL tells you about the site in general.

The Basic search help article covers all the most common issues, but sometimes you need a
little bit more power. This document will highlight the more advanced features of Google Web
Search. Have in mind though that even very advanced searchers, such as the members of the
search group at Google, use these features less than 5% of the time. Basic simple search is
often enough. As always, we use square brackets [ ] to denote queries, so [ to be or not
to be ] is an example of a query; [ to be ] or [ not to be ] are two examples of queries.

 Phrase search ("")

By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the
exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and
the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for
a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you
might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander
Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.
 Search within a specific website (site:)
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website.
For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but
only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New
York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other
sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for
example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq
site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.
 Terms you want to exclude (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages
that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear
immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the
query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be
interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will
search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as
many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar
-cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For
example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a
specific site from your search results.
 Fill in the blanks (*)
The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include *
within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown
term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give
you results about many of Google's products (go to next page and next page -- we have
many products). The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories
about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole
words, not parts of words.
 Search exactly as is (+)
Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for
example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for
the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives
you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a
word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that
word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around the word will do the same
thing.
 The OR operator
Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to
specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that
you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004
OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San
Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both
years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by
the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)
Exceptions

Search is rarely absolute. Search engines use a variety of techniques to imitate how people
think and to approximate their behavior. As a result, most rules have exceptions. For example,
the query [ for better or for worse ] will not be interpreted by Google as an OR query,
but as a phrase that matches a (very popular) comic strip. Google will show calculator results for
the query [ 34 * 87 ] rather than use the 'Fill in the blanks' operator. Both cases follow the
obvious intent of the query. Here is a list of exceptions to some of the rules and guidelines that
were mentioned in this and the Basic Search Help article:

Exceptions to 'Every word matters'

 Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are
called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search [ the
who ] likely refers to the band; the query [ who ] probably refers to the World Health
Organization -- Google will not ignore the word 'the' in the first query.
 Synonyms might replace some words in your original query. (Adding + before a word
disables synonyms.)
 A particular word might not appear on a page in your results if there is sufficient other
evidence that the page is relevant. The evidence might come from language analysis
that Google has done or many other sources. For example, the query [ overhead view
of the bellagio pool ] will give you nice overhead pictures from pages that do not
include the word 'overhead.'

Punctuation that is not ignored

 Punctuation in popular terms that have particular meanings, like [ C++ ] or [ C# ] (both
are names of programming languages), are not ignored.
 The dollar sign ($) is used to indicate prices. [ nikon 400 ] and [ nikon $400 ] will
give different results.
 The hyphen - is sometimes used as a signal that the two words around it are very
strongly connected. (Unless there is no space after the - and a space before it, in which
case it is a negative sign.)
 The underscore symbol _ is not ignored when it connects two words, e.g. [ quick_sort
].