Refine Google searches - Google Search Help (original) (raw)
There are different ways to refine your Google searches to be more precise or to expand in new directions.
Advanced search
Google offers pages designed to help you perform specialized searches.
To do an advanced search:
- In the “Google Search” box, enter your query.
- At the bottom of the search box, click Tools.
- Or, tap Search Tools on mobile.
- Under “Tools,” click Advanced Search.
Filters
After you perform a search, filters appear below the search bar. Filters allow you to narrow results to a particular type, such as:
- Books
- Forums
- Images
- Maps
- News
- Shopping
- Short Videos
- Videos
- Web
Tips:
- The "Web" filter contains text-based links to websites.
- The exact filters and the order in which they appear is dynamic. It's based on what our systems might think are most helpful to your query. If you don't find a particular filter that you want, use the "All" option to check others that are available.
- Filters are also available through Advanced Search.
Operators
To narrow your results in specific ways, you can use special operators in your search. Do not put spaces between the operator and your search term. A search for [site:nytimes.com] will work, but [site: nytimes.com] won't. Here are some popular operators:
- To search for an exact match of a word or phrase: Enter a word or a phrase inside quotes
“”.- For example, [
"tallest building"]
- For example, [
- To search for results from a specific site: Enter
site:in front of a site or domain.- For example, [
site:youtube.com cat videos]
- For example, [
- To exclude words from your search: Enter
-in front of a word that you want to leave out.- For example, [
jaguar speed -car]
- For example, [
- To find documents last updated before a particular date: Enter
before:in front of a year or specific date.- For example, [
astronomy discovery before:2025/11/01] or [avengers endgame before:2019]
- For example, [
- To find documents last updated after a particular date: Enter
after:in front of a year or specific date.- For example, [
astronomy discoveries after:2026/03/10] or [avengers endgame after:2020]
- For example, [
- To find documents last updated within a particular date range: Combine the
before:andafter:operators.- For example, [
avengers endgame after:2019-03-01 before:2019-03-05]
- For example, [
- To find documents of a particular file type: Enter
filetype:in front of the file type.- For example, [
photoelectric effect paper filetype:pdf]
- For example, [
Related results
After you click a web result and return back to the search results, you may find more related results added to what was originally generated. These added results are related to the web result that you clicked on.
Related searches
After a search, you find related searches to what you originally searched for. Related searches are automatically generated based on what our systems understand about how people search.
Settings
In Google Search, you can use settings that allow you to match or remove certain types of content:
- You can filter Google Search results to different languages with the Language results filter.
- You can filter explicit content from your results with SafeSearch.
Related resources
- Use results language to filter for Google Search
- Get notifications & updates for products you track on Google
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