Google's Common Characters
Google allows for the use of common characters (syntaxes) to help guide it's engine in understanding what you're looking for.
By default, if you type more than one word without syntaxes, Google will interpret this as 'AND' between each word.
Google is not case sensitive.
Searching for 'MOTORBIKE', 'Motorbike' or 'motorbike' will produce the same results.
Below are some common syntaxes you can use to narrow down your searches, an example of its use and how Google will interpret the query:
Common syntaxes:
| OR |
| Syntax |
| |
| Example |
shopping | holidays |
| Google will search |
for 'shopping' or 'holidays' |
| Exact phrase/words |
| Syntax |
"" |
| Example |
"shopping sales new south wales" |
| Google will search |
for the exact words "shopping sales new south wales" |
| Group |
| Syntax |
( ) |
| Example |
shopping (hours | centers) |
| Google will search |
for 'shopping', 'hours', 'shopping hours', 'centres' and 'shopping centres' |
| Web address |
| Syntax |
inurl: |
| Example |
inurl:shopping |
| Google will search |
for the word 'shopping' in the url (web address) |
| Domain name |
| Syntax |
site: |
| Example |
site: .au |
| Google will search |
for all the domain names with '.au' |
| Wildcard |
| Syntax |
* |
| Example |
shopping * |
| Google will search |
for the word shopping and any other word succeeding it - such as: 'shopping times', 'shopping centre', 'shopping discount', 'shopping secrets', etc. |
Source:
Google Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools
Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest
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