Advanced Operators Strategy

Tutorial Directory

Advanced operators

search gears overlaid on a globe

In contrast to Boolean Operators that control how keywords are used in a query, advanced operators control other query elements with great precision, filtering search results according to file types, URLs and where keywords are found in resources. The more common ones are summarized below. For more information and additional operators, use this search or visit this site: bynd.com.

filetype:

Most advanced operators require a colon immediately following the operative term. In the case of filetype: it is possible to return a specific type of file, such as a pdf (filetype:pdf). In Google, this works with a wide range of file types: ppt, doc, swf, etc. Advanced operators require including keywords to complete the query, such as: stem cell replacement filetype:pdf.

site:

If you want to search a specific Website rather than do a general Web search, use site:DOMAIN. Example: stem cell replacement site:www.nih.gov. Site: operates only on a domain with its extension, in this case, the National Institutes of Health.

location:

If you want to search a specific place, use location:(location name). Example: stem cell replacement location:canada. This can be crucial if trying to research national news biases.

related:

If you want to search a site similar to one you know, use related: like this: related:21cif.com retrieves other sites that emphasize information fluency. Related: does not work with a keyword search, only on a domain with its extension.

info:

If you want to retrieve metadata for site you are investigating, use info:(URL) info:21cif.com retrieves information about Google’s cache of the site, pages that are similar to the one you searched for, other pages on the same domain, pages that contain the domain text on their page.

cache:

If you want to see the cached version of a page in a search engine's database, use cache: cache:https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers. Cache: works only with a URL. Don't use other keywords. Also, don't put a space after the colon, otherwise the search engine interprets the space as AND.

allintext:

allintext: forces the search engine to return pages that contain ALL the keywords in the query (rather than just some of them, which would be the result using just AND). Example: allintext: stem cell replacement. Note how you can use a space after allintext:.

intext:

Intext: is used with a single keyword to return pages that contain that keywords and some or all of the others. Example: intext:stem cell replacement. This query will return pages containing stem and either cell or replacement or both.

allintitle:

Allintitle: is used with a keyword query to return pages that contain those keywords in the title tag or metatitle. Example: allintitle: stem cell replacement. A space may be used after this operator. This query will return pages where the title contains stem cell and replacement. This operator is often used by Web page managers to riase their site in the search rankings, known as Search engine Optimization. For a researcher, it may be important to search a title to find more relevant results. If all the keywords are in a title, there's a good chance the article will be highly relevant.

allinurl:

Allinurl: is used with a keyword query to return pages that contain those keywords in the URL. Example: allinurl: stem cell replacement. A space may be used after this operator. This query will return pages where the Web address or URL contains stem cell and replacement. Similar to allintitle:, a researcher may search a URL to find more relevant results. If all the keywords are in the URL, there's a good chance the article will be highly relevant. Inurl:(keyword) looks for just that keyword in the URL.

AROUND()

AROUND() is used when you want to limit the number of words that appear between search terms. Since it is possible to find stem and cell on the same page but in different sentences, this query forces the words to be located next to each other: stem AROUND(1) cell. Other numbers may be substituted to allow for more distance between terms.

..

In Google, two consecutive dots is code that tells the search engine to look for a range of dates. Instead of searching for TODAY, it may be better to look for a range of recent dates: stem cell replacement 2015..2016. The range may be extended to any numbers.

Search Strategies and Advanced Operators

Advanced operators allow for greater precision in locating relevant resources, which may save time and help reduce information overwhelm. Here's a guide when to use them.

  • You want to make sure the results are relevant. Search a single site you trust by including site: in the query. Search specific parts of the resource using inurl: or intitle: where, if all the keywords are found, it's bound to be relevant to your topic.
  • If you get a 404 error (page not found), use the cache: operator to locate the last saved copy of that page. You may want to make your own copy of the page before it is removed from the database (which will happen the next time the search engine bot visits that URL and finds nothing.
  • If you want to find similar sites to search, use related:
  • If you want to search just one site, even if they don't have their own site search tool, use site: in a regular keyword query.
  • If you know you are looking for a PDF document, limit your search by using filetype:
  • Many of these operators can be combined with NOT by inserting a minus sign immediately before the operator. For example, if you don't want any PDFs in the results, use -filetype:pdf in the query. For an example of the -site: operator, see the Backlinks tutorial.

There are quite a few more advanced operators. For more information, use this query.

Authored by Carl Heine (2016)