Internet Search Operators Richard Goldman January 26, 2000

Search Operators

OR Search OR Used to find sites that contain words such as United, States, OR Constitution. Type in the three words. This will find sites that have any of these three words in them. Example: united states constitution

And Search AND Used to find sites that must contain words such as United, States, AND Constitution. Put a plus sign (+) in front of each word that must be found at the site. This will find sites that have all of the words with the plus signs. Example: +united +states +constitution

AND Search with Other Words Used to find sites that must contain words such as Constitution but may also contain United and States. Put a plus sign (+) in front of each word that must be found at the site. Enter other words that would be helpful, but not required, with out the plus sign (+). This will find sites that have all of the words with the plus signs and the other words will be ranked high on the list. Example: united states +constitution

NOT Search NOT Used to find sites that contain words such as Constitution but NOT the words United or States. Put a plus minus (-) in front of each word that must not be found at the site. Example: -united -states constitution This will find sites that have the word Constitution but will not include any sites that have either United or States.

Phrase Search Used to find sites that contain phrases such as United States Constitution. Enclose the phrase within quote marks. This will find sites that have these three words located next to each other (but not necessarily in the same order.) Example: “united states constitution”

Title Search Searches the titles of web pages only. Type the word title followed by a colon (title:) followed by you search words. This will direct to search to look for words in the page titles only. Example: title:united states constitution

Case Sensitive Search Used to find sites that must contain capitalized words such as States but not states. Type only the letters that must be capitalized in capitals. Words that are typed in lower case will return both upper and lower case occurrences of the word. Example: States

Advanced Search Pages Instead of learning search operators, you can also use the Advanced Search pages to enter more focused searches. Many Search Engines contain a button or link to an advanced search page. The advanced search page will have text boxes, check boxes, and or pull-down boxes that allow you to select or enter advanced search criteria.

Resource This information came from selecting How to Search from the Infoseek search site.

Disclaimer These search commands, plus others not covered here, are standards that may not be supported by all search engines.