> Home > Search > Google Tips

Google Tips

Make the most of your Google University search and read the tips below.

Important stuff to remember

• Google looks for phrases, then adjacencies, then weights
• Google's boolean default is AND
• Three ways to do an OR search.
  1. Type OR between your keywords ("OR" should always be in call caps)
  2. Put your OR statements in parentheses
  3. Use the | ("pipe") character in place of the word OR
• Google is NOT case sensitive
• Google has a hard limit of 10 keywords
• Google ignores stop words
  a, about, an, and, are, as, at, be , by, from, how, I, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, we, what, when, where, which, with
• You can force Google to search for a stop word by placing a + in front of it
  pirates +of +the carribean
• Google does support whole-word wildcards (*)
• The order of your keywords matters

Query Modifiers

daterange: start-stop
pirates daterange:2452401-2452766

inurl: terms
pirates - inurl:disney

filetype: extension
pirates -filetype:pdf

site: domain
You use site:inconjunction with another search term or phrase. pirates site:disney.com
You can also use site: to exclude sites.
pirates - site:disney.com
You can use site: to exclude or include entire domains
pirates - site:domain

inanchor: terms
pirates - inanchor:"disney.com"

intext: terms
pirates +intext:"walt disney"

intitle: terms
pirates +intitle:"walt disney"

Alternate Query Types

cache: URL
cache:disney.com

related: URL
related:disney.com

link: URL
link:disney.com

info: URL
info:disney.com

Other Information Needs

phonebook: data
phonebook:disneyland ca
phonebook: (714) 956-6425

define: term(s)
define: pirate

stocks: symbol1 symbol2
stocks: msft
stocks aapl intc msft macr

Content courtesy of Patrick Crispen, Cal State Fullerton Faculty Development Center

California State University, Dominguez Hills • 1000 E. Victoria Street • Carson, California 90747 • (310) 243-3696 If any of the material is in violation of a copyright, please contact copyright@csudh.edu. Last updated Sept 17, 2007 by the University Web Manager. Disclaimer