Google Search Operators: A Guide to Advanced Web Search

Google search operators are words and symbols for narrowing searches by phrase, website, file type or date. This guide covers everyday searches, Google News date filters, image searches and less common search parameters.

Google does not publish a complete catalogue of every experimental or undocumented search command, so this reference separates documented operators from older syntax and optional URL parameters whose behaviour is less predictable.

Keep each operator attached to its value without inserting a blank. Write site:bbc.com rather than site: bbc.com.

Match phrases, include alternatives and exclude words

1. Quotation marks (” “): Search for an exact word or phrase.
   • Example: “machine learning”
2. OR: Search for either term. Write OR in capital letters.
   • Example: dogs OR cats
3. Minus sign (-): Exclude a word or quoted phrase.
   • Example: dogs -puppies
   • Example: jaguar -“electric car”

When you remember a particular phrase from an article but a normal search returns pages about the broader subject, quotation marks narrow the search to the wording you supplied rather than loosely related terms.

AND: Enter ordinary search terms together, such as dogs cats. Google searches for relevant matches but sometimes includes related terms or omits individual words. Do not treat AND as a guarantee of exact matches. Put essential wording in quotation marks.

Combining operators: A query such as site:bbc.com “climate change” -sport combines a website restriction, an exact phrase and an excluded word.

Search a website or find a particular file type

1. site: Restrict results to a website, domain or URL prefix.
   • Example: site:bbc.com climate change
   • Example: site:gov.ie business grants
   • Example: site:example.com/blog/ marketing
2. -site: Exclude a website.
   • Example: running shoes -site:amazon.com
3. filetype: Search for a particular document format.
   • Example: renewable energy report filetype:pdf
   • Example: marketing presentation filetype:pptx

A site: search does not provide a complete inventory of indexed pages, so a missing result does not prove Google has excluded a page from its index or failed to crawl your website.

Search Google and Google News by date

If the date menu is missing from your results, enter date operators directly in the search box. Google Search and Google News at news.google.com are separate interfaces, so their available controls differ.

Fixed dates: before: and after:

Use year-month-day order, such as 2026-11-01. Google Search also documents dates with slashes, such as 2026/11/01 and a year alone, such as 2025.

• after:YYYY-MM-DD: Results dated after a specified date. Example: solar energy after:2026-11-01
• before:YYYY-MM-DD: Results dated before a specified date. Example: solar energy before:2026-11-01
• after:YYYY-MM-DD before:YYYY-MM-DD: Combine both to search between two date boundaries. Example: solar energy after:2026-10-01 before:2026-11-01
• after:YYYY: Use a year instead of a full date. Example: solar energy after:2025
• before:YYYY: Set a year boundary. Example: solar energy before:2025

These operators also work in Google News searches. For example, search for “Dublin Airport” after:2026-10-01 before:2026-11-01 at news.google.com or enter the query in Google Search and select the News tab.

Use full dates for a specific month or research period. A year alone supplies a date boundary rather than a request for every result from the named year.

Date filters refer to the document dates Google identifies, so opening the page to check its publication or update date is still necessary when your research requires a source from a particular period.

Recent Google News stories: when:

Use when: in Google News for a rolling period ending now. For example, “Dublin Airport” when:7d searches recent coverage from the past seven days.

• when:1h: Past hour.
• when:12h: Past 12 hours.
• when:24h or when:1d: Past 24 hours.
• when:7d: Past seven days.
• when:30d: Past 30 days.
• when:1m: Past month.
• when:3m: Past three months.
• when:1y: Past year.

The pattern is when:number+unit, with h for hours, d for days, m for months and y for years. Here m means months rather than minutes.

The recent-period examples above are variants of one operator rather than separate commands, so change the number to set your window instead of looking for a different operator for each duration.

Google’s main Search help page does not document when: as a general web-search operator. Use before: and after: for fixed dates in web results. The Google News syntax also works in Google News search RSS feeds.

Date filtering does not mean newest first

A date restriction selects an eligible period. A newest-first sort changes the order of results. Adding when:7d does not guarantee a chronological list or every article published during the week.

Date filters in search URLs

The following parameters belong in the search URL rather than the search box. They are used by Google’s search tools but are not a stable public API.

• tbs=qdr:h: Past hour.
• tbs=qdr:d: Past 24 hours.
• tbs=qdr:w: Past week.
• tbs=qdr:m: Past month.
• tbs=qdr:y: Past year.
• tbs=qdr:h5: Past five hours. A number after the unit adjusts the duration.
• tbs=qdr:m6: Past six months.
• tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:10/1/2026,cd_max:10/31/2026: Custom date range using month/day/year.

Examples:

• Google Search: solar energy from the past week
• Google Search News tab: solar energy from the past week
• Google Search: solar energy with a custom October 2026 date range

These URLs target google.com rather than news.google.com. For fixed dates, before: and after: avoid URL editing.

Missing date menus

Google still documents publication-date tools in Search and a date selector behind the search-box arrow on the Google News desktop website. Available controls vary by interface, query and browser.

There is no documented general web-search command such as after:7d for a rolling week. Use a calendar date after after:, when:7d in Google News or the relevant URL filter.

Search a number range

Use two full stops between numbers to search a numerical range. For example, camera $100..$500 searches for camera-related content with numbers in the specified range.

A number range searches numbers in content. A price-range query does not confirm the current selling price or product availability. Likewise, 2020..2025 searches numbers rather than applying a publication-date filter.

Search Google Images by dimensions or image URL

Google documents two operators specifically for Google Images. They do not apply to ordinary web results.

• imagesize: Find images with exact pixel dimensions, written as width x height. Example: landscape imagesize:1920×1080
• src: Find pages referencing a specified image URL. Example: src:https://example.com/photos/landscape.jpg

Combine dimensions with a website restriction, such as site:example.com imagesize:1200×800. A src: search looks for references to the supplied URL rather than every visually similar copy of an image.

Additional search commands with limited or variable support

The following commands appear in older Google references or published operator tests. They are absent from Google’s current general help list, so their presence here does not imply consistent support across every query.

Title, URL and page-text commands

• intitle: Targets a word or phrase in the page title. Example: intitle:”annual report”
• allintitle: Targets multiple title words. Example: allintitle:annual report energy
• intext: Targets a word or phrase in page text. Example: intext:”customer retention”
• allintext: Targets multiple words in page text. Example: allintext:customer retention strategy
• inurl: Traditionally targets text in a URL. Example: inurl:pricing
• allinurl: Traditionally targets multiple URL terms. Example: allinurl:marketing research

Recent published tests found useful results for some text and title commands but inconsistent enforcement for others, particularly URL searches. Google Advanced Search also offers a terms appearing control for title and URL restrictions.

Anchor text and word proximity

• inanchor: Targets wording in links pointing to a page. Example: inanchor:”website design”
• allinanchor: The multiple-word form. Example: allinanchor:website design Dublin
• AROUND(n): Requests nearby terms. Example: solar AROUND(5) storage
• *: A placeholder for unknown words. Example: “a * in the hand”

Anchor-text searches do not provide complete backlink reports. Proximity and wildcard searches also require checking the returned content rather than assuming every result follows the requested constraint.

Aliases, grouping and specialist commands

• |: A commonly listed shorthand for OR. Example: dogs | cats. Prefer the documented OR spelling.
• ( ): Commonly used to group alternatives. Example: (dogs OR cats) adoption. Complex Boolean expressions are not guaranteed to behave like database queries.
• ext: A historically listed alias for filetype:. Example: report ext:pdf. Prefer filetype:.
• source: A historically used Google News publisher filter. Example: inflation source:reuters. Prefer site:reuters.com when filtering by publisher domain.
• loc: and location: Older location-filter syntax. Add a place name to the query instead of assuming a strict geographic restriction.

If an experimental query returns plausible results, compare the same search without the operator and inspect several matching pages, because an ignored command still produces a results page rather than an error message.

Additional search parameters for URLs

These settings belong after the question mark in a Google Search URL. Separate parameters with an ampersand. They control the query, interface or filtering rather than acting as words inside the search box.

• q=: The search query. Example: q=solar+energy
• udm=14: Shows search result page without AI Overviews, giving it a simpler look closer to traditional Google Search.
• tbm=nws: Requests the News tab within Google Search.
• tbm=isch: Traditionally requests image results.
• tbm=vid: Requests video results.
• tbm=shop: Requests Shopping results.
• tbm=bks: Requests book results.
• tbs=li:1: Requests Verbatim matching.
• filter=0: Requests inclusion of similar or otherwise omitted results.
• nfpr=1: Requests reduced automatic spelling correction. Google still applies corrections in some circumstances.
• hl=en: Sets the interface language.
• gl=ie: Supplies Ireland as a country context.
• lr=lang_de: Requests German-language results.
• cr=countryIE: Requests a country restriction.
• safe=active: Requests SafeSearch filtering.
• start=10: Requests a result offset for pagination.

Country context, interface language and result-language restrictions perform different jobs. Setting hl=de changes the interface language rather than guaranteeing German-only results.

Example combining a query with the Web view:

https://www.google.com/search?q=solar+energy&udm=14

Google changes URL behaviour over time. These parameters do not guarantee identical results across devices or replace the controls available in the current search interface.

Retired and historical commands

These entries explain commands still circulating in older lists. Do not use them as working filters.

• cache: Google’s cached-page search command no longer works.
• link: Previously searched for links pointing to a page.
• related: Previously searched for similar websites.
• info: and id: Previously requested information about a page.
• +: Previously forced exact inclusion of a term. Use quotation marks instead.
• ~: Previously requested synonyms.
• daterange: Older Julian-date range syntax. Use before: and after:.
• phonebook: Previously requested telephone-directory results.
• inpostauthor:, allinpostauthor: and inposttitle: Belonged to the discontinued Google Blog Search.

Commands for Gmail, Google Drive, Google Scholar and other specialist products use separate rules. A command supported inside one of those services is not automatically a Google web-search operator.

Quick answers without special operator syntax

Weather, definitions and movie information use ordinary searches. These queries request answers rather than restrict matching pages. A colon is unnecessary.

• Definitions: define serendipity
• Weather: weather London
• Maps: New York City map
• Movies: Inception cast
• Stocks: Search the company or ticker in Google Finance.
• Package tracking: Use the carrier’s tracking page with your tracking number.

Labels such as weather:, define:, stocks:, map: and movie: appear in operator lists but should not be confused with filters on matching webpages.

Calculations and measurement conversions

Enter an equation directly into Google, such as 5 * 8 + sqrt(9). If the calculator does not appear, add an equals sign.

For conversions, include the starting quantity and both units. Examples include 10 miles to kilometres, 25 Celsius to Fahrenheit and 5 litres to gallons. The word in also works in conversion queries, such as 10 miles in kilometres.