--- title: Google Search date: 2023-01-10 09:51:44 background: bg-[#d3594a] tags: categories: - Other intro: | This quick reference cheat sheet lists of Google advanced search operators. --- ## Getting Started {.cols-2} ### Google Advanced Search Operators | Operator | Description | Category | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | `""` | Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms | Basic,Mail | | `OR`/`AND` | Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps | Basic,Mail | | `\` | Implements OR | Basic | | `()` | Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order | Basic,Mail | | `-` | Excludes a word from results | Basic,Mail | | `*` | Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase | Basic | | `#..#` | # represents a number in this instance. Use to find numbers in a series. | Basic | | `$` | Allows for search of USD | Basic | | `€` | Allows for search of Euro | Basic | | `in` | Allows searches for unit conversion (currency, unit or measure) | Basic | | `~` | Prefix - Include synonyms (potentially defunct) | Basic | | `+` | Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase | Basic,Mail | | `AROUND(X)` | This is sandwiched between two words and the X declares how many words they must be mentioned between. I.e. if it’s (4) then the two keywords must be mentioned within 4 words of each other. | Advanced | | `_` | Acts as wildcard for autocomplete | Advanced | ### Search with url | Operator | Description | Category | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------- | | `inurl:` | Only returns results where the queried keyword(s) is present in the URL | Advanced | | `allinurl:` | As above but only containing all of the specified words in the URL | Advanced | | `blogurl:` | Find blog URLs under a specific domain. This was used in Google blog search, but I’ve found it does return some results in regular search. | Advanced | | `site:` | Limit results to those from one site | Advanced | | `related:` | Find similar domains to the queried domain | Advanced | ### Search with dates | Operator | Description | Category | | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | `daterange:` | Return results in a specified range (requires julian dates) | Advanced | | `after:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail | | `before:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail | | `older:` | Search for messages older than a certain date | Mail | | `newer:` | Search for messages newer than a certain date | Mail | ### Search files | Operator | Description | Category | | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | `filename:` | Search for messages with a particular type of file attached, or the exact name of a file | Mail | | `type:` | Allows you to search drive by file type | Drive | | `owner:` | Allows you to search drive by owner of file or folder | Drive | | `to:` | Allows you to search drive for files shared with a specific person | Drive | | `title:` | Searches drive for files with the keyword in their title alone | Drive | | `source:domain` | Allows you to search for files or folders shared with everyone in your business | Drive | | `filetype:` | Returns only files of a particular type associated with the keyword searched | Advanced | | `ext:` | As above, based on extension | Advanced | | `after:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail | | `before:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail | | `is:trashed` | Searches for the item in the Drive bin | Drive | ### Search with page content | Operator | Description | Category | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | | `link:` | Find pages that link to the target domain | Advanced | | `inanchor:` | Find pages linked to with the specified anchor text/ phrase. Data is heavily sampled. | Advanced | | `allinanchor:` | Find pages with all individual terms after "inanchor:" in the inbound anchor text. | Advanced | | `intitle:` | Returns pages based on the searched query appearing in their title | Advanced | | `allintitle:` | Similar to intitle: but only returns titles where all the words in the title match | Advanced | | `inposttile:` | Finds pages with keywords in their post titles (i.e. for researching blogs) |   | | `intext:` | Finds pages where the keyword(s) are mentioned within the page content. | Advanced | | `allintext:` | Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned. | Advanced | ### Keywords | Operator | Description | Category | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------- | | `Business` | type E.g. cafe, restaurant, bar etc will return a selection of appropriate businesses in the are | Maps | | `Petrol/Charging` | Station EV near me or perol station near me returns | Maps | | `Search` | for a message with a google sheet attached | Mail | | `Search` | for a message with a google presentation attached | Mail | ### Search on emails | Operator | Description | Category | | ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | `+` | Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase | Basic,Mail | | `()` | Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order | Basic,Mail | | `-` | Excludes a word from results | Basic,Mail | | `""` | Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms | Basic,Mail | | `OR`/`AND` | Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps | Basic,Mail | | `after:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date | Drive,Mail | | `before:` | Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date | Drive,Mail | | `is:starred` | Searches only items that have been starred in drive | Drive,Mail | | `from:` | Specify the sender in google mail | Mail | | `to:` | Specify the recipient in google mail | Mail | | `cc:` | Search by a recipient that was copied into an email | Mail | | `bcc:` | Search by a recipient that was blind copied into an email | Mail | | `older:` | Search for messages older than a certain date | Mail | | `newer:` | Search for messages newer than a certain date | Mail | | `Search` | for a message with a google sheet attached | Mail | | `Search` | for a message with a google presentation attached | Mail | | `AROUND` | Similar to the normal google search function, allows you to search for keywords near each other. | Mail | | `subject:` | Search by keywords featured in the subject line | Mail | | `{}` | Use for OR in mail instead of the OR function | Mail | | `label:` | Search for messages that have a certain label | Mail | | `has:attachment` | Search for messages that have an item attached | Mail | | `has:drive` | Search for messages with a google drive attached | Mail | | `has:document` | Search for messages with a google doc attached | Mail | | `has:youtube` | Search for a message containing a youtube video | Mail | | `list:` | Search for all messages from a particular mailing list | Mail | | `in:anywhere` | Includes all folders in your search, including spam and bin | Mail | | `is:important` | Search for messages that have been marked as important | Mail | | `label:important` | Same as is:important | Mail | | `is:snoozed` | Searches for messages that have been snoozed | Mail | | `is:unread` | Searches for unread messages | Mail | | `is:read` | searches for read messages only | Mail | | `has:yellow-star` | Searches for messages with coloured star icon | Mail | | `has:blue-info` | Searches for messages with colourd icon | Mail | | `is:chat` | Searches for messagse from chat | Mail | | `deliveredto:` | Search by email address for delivered messages | Mail | | `category:` | Searches by messages based on category. Follow the colon with the categoy name, i.e. category:primary | Mail | | `size:` | Messages larger than a certain size in bytes | Mail | | `larger:` | Messages larger than a certain size in bytes | Mail | | `smaller:` | Messages smaller than a certain size in bytes | Mail | | `has:userlabels` | Search for messages that have custom user labels | Mail | | `has:nouserlabels` | Search for messages that have no custom user labels | Mail | ### Some other useful search operators | Operator | Description | Category | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | | `define:` | Pulls a card response from Google displaying the dictionary definition of the word or phrase | Advanced | | `cache:` | Returns the most up to date cache of an indexed web page | Advanced | | `weather:` | Brings up the featured snipped for weather for that location | Advanced | | `stocks:` | Returns stock information for the specified ticker | Advanced | | `map:` | Force google map results for a particular query | Advanced | | `movie:` | Find information for the specified movie (particularly useful when that movie has an ambiguous name). If the movie is still in theatres it’ll also return screen times | Advanced | | `source:` | Use in google news, returns results from the specified source | Advanced | | `loc:` | Returns results for a specific location | Advanced | | `location:` | As above but with Google news | Advanced | | `info:` | Returns information related to a domain (pages with domain text, similar on-site pages, cache etc) | Advanced | | `near` | Part of the google maps lazy searches e.g. book shops near work | Maps | ## Also see - [Google Search Operators Cheat Sheet](https://static.semrush.com/blog/uploads/files/39/12/39121580a18160d3587274faed6323e2.pdf) _(static.semrush.com)_