The Basic Search
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.
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 "detlva," "deltav" is suggested as an alternative query. Note: Currently, the spell checker supports only US English.
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. To broaden or restrict the search, include fewer or more 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 "emerson process management," "Emerson Process Management," and "Emerson process Management" 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.
For example, to search for Annual Report Version I, enter Annual Report Version +1 or "Annual Report Version 1".
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 "sys" or "sys*" will not yield "system" or "systems.". If in doubt, try both forms, for example: "system" and "systems."
Refining Your Search
Since 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 broad query.
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.
For example, the search: digital -busses will return pages about bass that do not contain the word "busses."
Phrase Searches
You can search for phrases by adding quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes ("like this") appear together in all returned documents. 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. For example, the search:
is treated as a phrase search even though the search words are not enclosed in double quotes. Google recognizes hyphens, slashes, periods, equal signs, and apostrophes as phrase connectors.