Advanced Google Operators
Google supports
several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to
Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell
Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a
special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search
but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.
Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not
require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the
minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of
operators is available on the Basics of Search page.
Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page,
but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.
Alternate Query Types
cache:
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache: www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url. If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance,
cache: www.google.com
web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted. This
functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's
main results page.
link:
The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage.
For instance, [link: www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing
to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the
web page url. This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search
page, under Page Specific Search > Links.
related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified
web page. For instance, [related: www.google.com] will list web pages that are
similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the
"related:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on
Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page
Specific Search > Similar.
info:
The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web
page. For instance, [info: www.google.com] will show information about the
Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page
url. This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly
into a Google search box.
Other Information Needs
define:
The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it,
gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire
phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed
them).
stocks:
If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of
the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock
information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show
information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not
the company name.) This functionality is also available if you search just on
the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes"
link on the results page.
Query Modifiers
site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to
those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site: www.google.com]
will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find
pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the
"site:" and the domain. This functionality is also available through Advanced
Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.
allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to
those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle:
google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search"
in the title. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page,
under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to
documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google
search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and
mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can
be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in
front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the
front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle:
google search].
allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those
with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search]
will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url. Note
that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores
punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with
the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated
by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that
particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these
constraints.This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page,
under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to
documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search]
will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention
the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no
space between the "inurl:" and the following word. Putting "inurl:" in front of
every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of
your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google
search].