Here are some pointers to help you improve your search results.

Case sensitivity

Search queries are not case sensitive. For example, "hawaii" and "Hawaii" return the same results.

Phrase searches

Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.

example:

"OR" search

To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms.

For example, here's how to search for a vacation in either London or Paris:

example:

Including common words

Common words and characters such as "where," "the," "how," and other digits and letters are ignored because they slow down your search without improving the results.

If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to remove space after the "+" sign.)

For example, here's how to ensure that Google includes the "I" in a search for Star Wars, Episode I:

example:

Negative terms

If your search term has more than one meaning (bass, for example, could refer to fishing or music) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.

For example, here's how you'd find pages about bass-heavy lakes, but not bass-heavy music:

example:

Note: when you include a negative term in your search, be sure to remove space after the "-" sign.

Synonym search

If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of your search term.

For example, here's how to search for food facts and nutrition and cooking information:

example: