Google Search Quick Dev Reference

This quick reference cheat sheet lists of Google advanced search operators.

Getting Started

Google Advanced Search Operators

"" — Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms — Basic,Mail

OR/AND — Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps — Basic,Mail

\ — Implements OR — Basic

() — Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order — Basic,Mail

- — Excludes a word from results — Basic,Mail

* — Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase — Basic

#..# — # represents a number in this instance. Use to find numbers in a series. — Basic

$ — Allows for search of USD — Basic

€ — Allows for search of Euro — Basic

in — Allows searches for unit conversion (currency, unit or measure) — Basic

~ — Prefix - Include synonyms (potentially defunct) — Basic

+ — Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase — Basic,Mail

AROUND(X) — This is sandwiched between two words and the X declares how many words they must be mentioned between. I.e. if it’s (4) then the two keywords must be mentioned within 4 words of each other. — Advanced

_ — Acts as wildcard for autocomplete — Advanced

Search with url

inurl: — Only returns results where the queried keyword(s) is present in the URL — Advanced

allinurl: — As above but only containing all of the specified words in the URL — Advanced

blogurl: — Find blog URLs under a specific domain. This was used in Google blog search, but I’ve found it does return some results in regular search. — Advanced

site: — Limit results to those from one site — Advanced

related: — Find similar domains to the queried domain — Advanced

Search with dates

daterange: — Return results in a specified range (requires julian dates) — Advanced

after: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date — Drive,Mail

before: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date — Drive,Mail

older: — Search for messages older than a certain date — Mail

newer: — Search for messages newer than a certain date — Mail

Search files

filename: — Search for messages with a particular type of file attached, or the exact name of a file — Mail

type: — Allows you to search drive by file type — Drive

owner: — Allows you to search drive by owner of file or folder — Drive

to: — Allows you to search drive for files shared with a specific person — Drive

title: — Searches drive for files with the keyword in their title alone — Drive

source:domain — Allows you to search for files or folders shared with everyone in your business — Drive

filetype: — Returns only files of a particular type associated with the keyword searched — Advanced

ext: — As above, based on extension — Advanced

after: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date — Drive,Mail

before: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date — Drive,Mail

is:trashed — Searches for the item in the Drive bin — Drive

Search with page content

link: — Find pages that link to the target domain — Advanced

inanchor: — Find pages linked to with the specified anchor text/ phrase. Data is heavily sampled. — Advanced

allinanchor: — Find pages with all individual terms after "inanchor:" in the inbound anchor text. — Advanced

intitle: — Returns pages based on the searched query appearing in their title — Advanced

allintitle: — Similar to intitle: but only returns titles where all the words in the title match — Advanced

inposttile: — Finds pages with keywords in their post titles (i.e. for researching blogs) —

intext: — Finds pages where the keyword(s) are mentioned within the page content. — Advanced

allintext: — Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned. — Advanced

Keywords

Business — type E.g. cafe, restaurant, bar etc will return a selection of appropriate businesses in the are — Maps

Petrol/Charging — Station EV near me or perol station near me returns — Maps

Search — for a message with a google sheet attached — Mail

Search — for a message with a google presentation attached — Mail

Search on emails

+ — Prefix - Force exact match on single phrase — Basic,Mail

() — Allows grouping of operators and helps dictate order — Basic,Mail

- — Excludes a word from results — Basic,Mail

"" — Allows searching for a specific phrase - exact match search. Individual word prevents synonyms — Basic,Mail

OR/AND — Boolean search function for OR searches as Google defaults to AND between words - must be all caps — Basic,Mail

after: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received anytime after a set date — Drive,Mail

before: — Allows you to search drive or mail for files modified or mail sent/received before a certain date — Drive,Mail

is:starred — Searches only items that have been starred in drive — Drive,Mail

from: — Specify the sender in google mail — Mail

to: — Specify the recipient in google mail — Mail

cc: — Search by a recipient that was copied into an email — Mail

bcc: — Search by a recipient that was blind copied into an email — Mail

older: — Search for messages older than a certain date — Mail

newer: — Search for messages newer than a certain date — Mail

Search — for a message with a google sheet attached — Mail

Search — for a message with a google presentation attached — Mail

AROUND — Similar to the normal google search function, allows you to search for keywords near each other. — Mail

subject: — Search by keywords featured in the subject line — Mail

{} — Use for OR in mail instead of the OR function — Mail

label: — Search for messages that have a certain label — Mail

has:attachment — Search for messages that have an item attached — Mail

has:drive — Search for messages with a google drive attached — Mail

has:document — Search for messages with a google doc attached — Mail

has:youtube — Search for a message containing a youtube video — Mail

list: — Search for all messages from a particular mailing list — Mail

in:anywhere — Includes all folders in your search, including spam and bin — Mail

is:important — Search for messages that have been marked as important — Mail

label:important — Same as is:important — Mail

is:snoozed — Searches for messages that have been snoozed — Mail

is:unread — Searches for unread messages — Mail

is:read — searches for read messages only — Mail

has:yellow-star — Searches for messages with coloured star icon — Mail

has:blue-info — Searches for messages with colourd icon — Mail

is:chat — Searches for messagse from chat — Mail

deliveredto: — Search by email address for delivered messages — Mail

category: — Searches by messages based on category. Follow the colon with the categoy name, i.e. category:primary — Mail

size: — Messages larger than a certain size in bytes — Mail

larger: — Messages larger than a certain size in bytes — Mail

smaller: — Messages smaller than a certain size in bytes — Mail

has:userlabels — Search for messages that have custom user labels — Mail

— Search for messages that have no custom user labels — Mail

Some other useful search operators

define: — Pulls a card response from Google displaying the dictionary definition of the word or phrase — Advanced

cache: — Returns the most up to date cache of an indexed web page — Advanced

weather: — Brings up the featured snipped for weather for that location — Advanced

stocks: — Returns stock information for the specified ticker — Advanced

map: — Force google map results for a particular query — Advanced

movie: — Find information for the specified movie (particularly useful when that movie has an ambiguous name). If the movie is still in theatres it’ll also return screen times — Advanced

source: — Use in google news, returns results from the specified source — Advanced

loc: — Returns results for a specific location — Advanced

location: — As above but with Google news — Advanced

info: — Returns information related to a domain (pages with domain text, similar on-site pages, cache etc) — Advanced

near — Part of the google maps lazy searches e.g. book shops near work — Maps