Google Search Operators Worth Remembering
Google Search operators are useful when a normal query returns too much noise. I do not remember all of them, but a few—especially quotes, -, site:, and filetype:—save a surprising amount of time.
Google changes search features occasionally, so some of the specialised operators in this 2021 reference may no longer behave exactly as they once did.
Narrow the results
"tallest football player"searches for an exact phrase.jaguar speed -carexcludes pages containingcar.marathon OR raceaccepts either term.ORmust be uppercase.camera $150..$1000searches within a numeric price range.camera $700adds a price to the query.@twittersearches for a social profile, while#blackfridaysearches for a hashtag.
Search a particular part of a page
site:google.comlimits results to one site;site:.govlimits them to a domain suffix.intitle:"tesla vs bmw"looks for the phrase in page titles.allintitle:apple iphonerequires every following term in the title.apple announcements inurl:2019looks for2019in the URL.allinurl:apple iphone casesrequires every following term in the URL.intext:"iphone vs samsung vs LG"looks for the phrase in page text.allintext:iphone samsung LGrequires every following term in page text."apple announcements" filetype:pdflimits results to PDF files.
You can combine several of these. For example, site:example.com filetype:pdf "annual report" is much more useful than scrolling through an entire site and hoping its search works.
Special result types
These queries were also available when this post was written:
related:time.comlooked for similar sites.cache:example.comopened Google’s cached copy of a page.weather:rigashowed weather for Riga.stocks:aaplshowed stock information for Apple.map:rigashowed map results for Riga.movie:titanicshowed information about the film.
The exact phrase and exclusion operators are the ones I would learn first. Add site: and filetype: and most everyday searches become much easier to control.
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