Google Search

Getting Started

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
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