Search settings You are always in control of your search preferences. Here's a quick review of the options that you can set (and change whenever you like) on the search settingspage. You can reach that page by clicking the
gear icon in the top right corner of the search results page, then clicking Search settings.
You can also visit the page directly at google.com/preferences. The options are grouped into three categories:Search results, Languages, and Location. Click the three links on the left side of the page to change categories. Save your settings For both of the following cases, make sure that you enable cookies on your browser. â—?
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When signed in (recommended), you can save your search settings to your Google Account, and sign in to access your settings on any computer or browser. Learn more about signing in to save settings. When not signed in, you can save your search settings to your specific computer and browser. If you're still having trouble after making sure that cookies are enabled, there are a few other reasons why settings won't stick.
Search results SafeSearch filters SafeSearch helps prevent adult content from appearing in your search results. Learn more about SafeSearch and how to lock SafeSearch.
Google Instant predictions In this section, you can control Google Instant, a feature that allows search results to appear dynamically while you type. This can help you connect to the information you need faster, even before you finish typing your search! You can choose to show Google Instant predictions when your computer is fast enough (recommended), always show Instant results, or never show Instant results. Learn more about Google Instant
Results per page By default, you'll see 10 search results per page. This number gives you the fastest search experience, but you can increase the number if you'd prefer. You won't be able to change this setting if you have Google Instant enabled.
Search results from your friends and connections When personal results are on, you may see content shared with you by your friends or connections. To see only results from the public web, click the
globe button on the results page.
Where results open You can choose to have the search results that you click open in a separate window (or tab for some browsers). If you don't select this option, clicking a search result will load the page in the same window or tab that you used when you searched.
Google Web History You can see results based on what you've searched for and which sites you've visited in the past. At any time, you can turn off this feature and remove individual searches or your entire history. Learn more about Google Web History
Languages You can select the language in which you'd like to see search results. We try to detect the preferred language for you, however you can use this setting to select a particular language to view your results in. Choose the language in which you'd like to read the alerts, buttons, links, and other messaging on Google search pages and other Google products. Watch this video to learn more about language settings.
Location You can choose a location to customize your search results around. For example, if you set the location preference to “New York, NY� and search on Google for [restaurants ], we can try to find a restaurant in New York, even if you don't include a location in your search. If you'd rather not set an explicit location, Google will attempt to automatically detect your location based on your IP address and other factors. Of course, you can add a location term, like a city name or zip code (even in another country), to your search term at any time to get local results. Learn more about location
Search operators If you're not finding what you're searching for after using our basic search tips, try asearch operator. Add one of these symbols to your search terms in the Google search box to gain more control over the results that you see. Don’t worry about memorizing the operators - you can use the Advanced Search page to generate many of these searches. Search for an exact word or phrase "search query"
Use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This option is handy when searching for song lyrics or a line from literature. [ "imagine all the people" ] Tip: Only use this if you're looking for a very precise word or phrase, because otherwise you could be excluding helpful results by mistake.
Exclude a word -query
Add a dash (-) before a word or site to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for synonyms like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal. [ jaguar speed -car ] or [ pandas -site:wikipedia.org ] Tip: You can also exclude results based on other operators, like excluding all results from a specific site.
Search within a site or domain site: query
If you are looking for more results from a certain website, include "site:" in your query. For example, you can find all mentions of "Olympics" on the New York Times website like this: [ Olympics site:nytimes.com ] Tip: Also search within a specific top-level domain like .org or .edu or country top-level domain like .de or .jp. [ Olympics site:.gov ]
Include a "fill
Use an asterisk (*) within a query as a placeholder for any
in the blank"
unknown or "wildcard" terms. Use with quotation marks to find
query * query
variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase. [ "a * saved is a * earned" ]
Search for either word query OR query
If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms. [ olympics location 2014 OR 2018 ] Tip: Enclose phrases in quotes to search for either one of several phrases. [ "world cup 2014" OR "olympics 2014" ]
Search for a number range number..numbe r
Separate numbers by two periods (with no spaces) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements. [ camera $50..$100] Tip: Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an upper maximum or a lower minimum. [ world cup winners ..2000 ]
Exceptions Most search rules have exceptions to accommodate the ways that people commonly search. For example, Google will show calculator results for the query [ 34 * 87 ] rather than interpreting the asterisk as the "fill in the blanks" operator. In general, most punctuation and special characters are ignored, however there is a growing list of punctuation and symbols that are recognized in searches.
Explore Google's search tips and tricks to help you get information and answers faster.
Search tools and filters You can filter and customize the search results you see by using the options and tools at the top of the results page. For example, you can choose to just see blogs updated within the last 24 hours or photos of a certain color.
How to use search options and tools 1. At the top of your search results page, click a filtering option to customize the search results page you're looking at. 2. Click More or Search tools to see all the available filters and views you can apply to that search. Since your options will vary based on the search and the filters you've already used, you won't see all the options all the time. 3. Try clicking on two or more options to form a more complex, more focused filter. 4. To go back to standard unfiltered Google results, click Web at the top of the search results page. As we develop new ways to help you search, you may see new or changed options that aren't listed here. Some options may be available in a limited number of languages or only if you are signed in to a Google Account.
Filter results by type of content Along the top of your page, you'll see a number of Google products to filter your content by. When you select More, you'll see a drop down of additional products to choose from. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Web: By default, your Google search will show unfiltered results that can include all the types of content below. Images: See only results from Google Images. Maps: See only results from Google Maps. Videos: See only video results from YouTube. News: See only results from Google News. Shopping: See only results from Google Shopping. Books: See only results from Google Books, including reviews, excerpts, and where you can buy the book. Places: See only results from places and businesses using Google+ Local. Blogs: See only results from Google Blog Search. Flights: See only results from Google Flight Search. Discussions: See what people are saying in discussion groups, forums, and question-andanswer sites. Recipes: See only results for recipes. Customize and filter these results to show recipes with your ideal ingredients, cook time and calorie count. Applications: See only results for non-Google and Google applications for your mobile devices and desktop. Patents: See only results from Google Patent Search, which allows you to search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you.
Filter results by other criteria Not only can you filter results by product, but you can also use additional Search tools to refine your query. These Search tools will vary based on the search you've done. Here are some of the Search tools you may see. ● ●
Publish date: You can limit results according to when they are published on the Web. Options include any time or a custom range like past month. Reading level: You can limit your search results to a specific reading level (Basic, Intermediate or Advanced).
Google Search - Reading level Watch the video to learn more about the reading level tool.
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Did you know that you can filter your Google search results by reading level? Watch this video to learn more about the reading level tool! Verbatim search: You can see results for the exact words you searched for. Images: If you select Images, you can filter results by size, type and color. Learn more about the search tools specific to Google Images. Dictionary tool: You can find definitions, synonyms, images and more for your search term. Personal: If you're signed in to your Google Account, you can choose to see content shared with you by your friends. Nearby: Only see results that might be especially relevant for your preferred location indicated on the side of your results page. You can easily specify your preferred location. Visited pages/Not yet visited: If you're signed in to your Google Account and have Web History enabled, you can limit the results to pages you have or have not already visited. Pages from a particular country: To see search results from a particular country, click on Search tools then The web. From here, you can select a country in your local Google domain to see results from.