Digital Arsenal

Search Behaviors

Descriptions

Implicit AND

Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND.

Exact Matching

Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly.

Word Variation
Automatic Stemming

Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms.

Common-Word Exclusion

Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results.

32-Word Limit

Google limits queries to 32 words.

Term Proximity

Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near each other.

Term Order

Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query.

Case Insensitivity

Google is case-insensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results.

Ignoring Punctuation

Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including , . ; ? [ ] ( ) @ / * < >

Notation

Find result

Example

terms1 terms2

with both term1 and term2

term1 OR term2
term1 | term2

with either term1 or term2 or both

[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ]
[ Tahiti | Hawaii ]

+term

with term (The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.)

[ +i spy ]

-term

without term

~term

with term or one of its synonyms
(currently supported on Web and Directory search)

[ google ~guide ]

number1..number2

with a number in the specified range

[ annual report 2000..2003 ]

"phrase"

with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order

[ "I have a dream" ]
[ "Rio de Janeiro" ]