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Google Search

This quick reference cheat sheet lists of Google advanced search operators.

#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