To enter a query, type in a few descriptive words and press
the Enter key or click the Search button for a list of
relevant results.
Google uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to find
pages that are both important and relevant to your search.
For instance, Google analyzes not only the candidate page,
but also the pages linking into it to determine the value
of the candidate page for your search. Google also prefers
pages in which your query terms are near each other.
Encrypted, viewable PDF documents are converted to HTML for
indexing; however, the HTML is not displayed.
Spelling
A single spelling suggestion is returned with the results
for queries where the spell checker has detected a possible
spelling mistake. The spell checker feature is context
sensitive. For example, if the query submitted is "gail
divers," "gail devers" is suggested as an alternative
query. However, "scuba divers" would not return an
alternate query suggestion. Currently, the spell checker
supports only US English.
Synonyms
Synonyms are other words that have the same or similar
meanings. They are displayed as "Other suggested searches"
on the results page.
Sorting by Date
The Sort by Date feature sorts and presents your search
results based on date. The date of each file is returned in
the results. Results that do not contain dates are
displayed at the end, sorted by relevance.
Automatic "and" Queries
By default, Google only returns pages that include all of
your search terms. There is no need to include "and"
between terms.
"OR" Searches
Google supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve
pages that include either word A or word B, use an
uppercase "OR" between terms.
See Your Search Terms in the Results
Every Google search result lists one or more excerpts from
the web page to display how your search terms are used in
context on that page. In the excerpt, your search terms are
displayed in bold text so that you can quickly determine if
that result is from a page you want to visit.
Does Capitalization Matter?
Google searches are not case sensitive. All letters,
regardless of how you enter them, are understood as lower
case. For example, searches for "george washington,"
"George Washington," and "George washington" all return the
same results.
Does Google Observe Stop Words?
Google ignores common words and characters
known as stop words. These include most pronouns and
articles. Google automatically disregards such terms as
"where" and "how," as well as certain single digits and
single letters. These terms rarely help to narrow a search
and can significantly slow searching. If you want to use
stop words in your search, use the "+" sign or enclose your
phrase containing stop words in quotation marks. Make sure
that you include a space before the "+" sign.
Does Google Use Stemming?
To provide the most accurate results, Google
does not use "stemming" or support "wildcard" searches.
Rather, Google searches for exactly the words that you
enter into the search box. For example, searching for
"airlin" or "airlin*" will not yield "airline" or
"airlines.". If in doubt, try both forms, for example:
"airline" and "
Refining Your SearchSince Google only returns web pages
that contain all of the words in your query, refining or
narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to
the search terms you have already entered. The refined
query returns a specific subset of the pages that were
returned by your original
Excluding Words
You can exclude a word from your search by
putting a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of the term
you want to exclude. Make sure you include a space before
the minus sign.
Phrase Searches
You can search for phrases by adding
quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes ("like
this") appear together in all returned documents. Phrase
searches using quotation marks are useful when searching
for famous sayings or specific names. Certain characters
serve as phrase connectors. Phrase connectors work like
quotes because they join your search words in the same way
double quotes join your search words.
Directory Restricting
To restrict the directories searched, enter
a URL that drills down through the directory structure to
the directories or files to be searched. For example, the
query [google.com/manual/] restricts the search to
everything at the manual level. If the trailing slash is
not included, as in [google.com/manual], then all
subdirectories are also searched.