This page will teach you how to use the various operators to craft your search and find the content your looking for on Navy.mil.



The + Operator

Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a “+” sign.

To force Google to search for a particular term, put a + sign operator in front of the word in the query. Note that you should not put a space between the + and the word. So, to search for the satirical newspaper The Onion, use [ +The Onion ], not [ + The Onion ].

The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only those pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any term.

Want to learn about Star Wars Episode One? “I” is a stop word and is not included in a search unless you precede it with a + sign.

* USE [ Star Wars +I ]
* NOT [ Star Wars I ]
Google excludes common words in English and in other languages, such as “la” (which means “the” in Spanish) and “de” (which means “of” in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). So if Google ignores a term critical to your search, e.g., LA (common abbreviation for Los Angeles), put a + sign in front of it.

* USE [ jobs in central +LA California ]
* NOT [ jobs in central LA California ]
The query [ jobs in central LA California ] finds jobs in central California, since the term “LA” is ignored because it’s a stop word. Central California is at least a hundred miles (160 km) from central Los Angeles.

Disable automatic stemming, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of your search term(s), by preceding each term that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you want to see only pages mentioning one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, precede the word “book” by a + sign.

* [ favorite +book ]

Google will search for “favourite” and “favorite” too. To prevent this, precede the word “favorite” by a + sign.

* [ +favorite +book ]

What if you’re looking for a string that contains a “+” sign? Though the character has special meaning, Google gives special attention to very common terms that include it, e.g., C++ (the name of a widely used computer language).


* [ C++ ]




The - Operator

Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a “–” sign.

To find pages without a particular term, put a – sign operator in front of the word in the query. The – sign indicates that you want to subtract or exclude pages that contain a specific term. Do not put a space between the – and the word, i.e.

* USE [ dolphins –football ]

* NOT [ dolphins – football ]

So, to search for a twins support group in Minnesota, but not return pages relating to the Minnesota Twins baseball team:

* USE [ twins support group Minnesota –baseball ]
* NOT [ twins support group Minnesota ]
No pages containing the word “baseball” will be returned by the first query.

Find pages on “salsa” but not the dance nor dance classes.

* USE [ salsa –dance –class ]
* NOT [ salsa ]

tags (keywords): fine tune, hyphen, narrowing search, queries, special characters




The ~ Operator

Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym operator.

The tilde (~) operator takes the word immediately following it and searches both for that specific word and for the word’s synonyms. It also searches for the term with alternative endings. The tilde operator works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms. As with the + and – operators, put the ~ (tilde) next to the word, with no spaces between the ~ and its associated word, i.e., [ ~lightweight laptop ] NOT [ ~ lightweight laptop ].

Why did Google use tilde? In math, the “~” symbol means “is similar to.” The tilde tells Google to search for pages that are synonyms or similar to the term that follows.

* [ ~inexpensive ] matches “inexpensive,” “cheap,” “affordable,” and “low cost”
* [ ~run ] matches “run,” “runner’s,” “running,” as well as “marathon”

Looking for a guide, help, tutorial, or tips on using Google?

* [ google ~guide ]

Interested in food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information?

* [ ~food ~facts ]

The tilde operator works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms.

* [ ~cockroach ]

If you don’t like the synonyms that Google suggests when you use the ~ operator, specify your own synonyms with the OR operator



The OR and | Operators

Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase OR or | (vertical bar).

The OR operator, for which you may also use | (vertical bar), applies to the search terms immediately adjacent to it. The first and second examples will find pages that include either “Tahiti” or “Hawaii” or both terms, but not pages that contain neither “Tahiti” nor “Hawaii.” The third and fourth examples will find pages that contain any one, two, or all three of the terms “blouse,” “shirt,” and “chemise.”

* [ Tahiti OR Hawaii ]
* [ Tahiti | Hawaii ]

* [ blouse OR shirt OR chemise ]
* [ blouse | shirt | chemise ]

Note: If you write OR with a lowercase “o” or a lowercase “r” Google interprets the word as a search term instead of an operator.

Note: Unlike OR, a | (vertical bar) need not be surrounded by spaces.

* [ bicycle|cycle ]

Use quotes (“ ”) to group compound words and phrases together.

* [ filter OR stop “junk email“ OR spam ]
* [ “New Zealand“ OR “Ivory Coast“ holiday OR vacation package ]




The .. Operator

Specify that results contain numbers in a range by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces.

For example, specify that you are searching in the price range $250 to $1000 using the number range specification $250..$1000.

* [ recumbent bicycle $250..$1000 ]

Find the year the Russian Revolution took place.

* [ Russian Revolution 1800..2000 ]

tags (keywords): fine tune, narrowing search, numbers, prices, queries, special characters




The * Operator

Use *, an asterisk character, known as a wildcard, to match one or more words in a phrase (enclosed in quotes).

Each * represents just one or more words. Google treats the * as a placeholder for a word or more than one word. For example, [ “Google * my life“ ] tells Google to find pages containing a phrase that starts with “Google” followed by one or more words, followed by “my life.” Phrases that fit the bill include: “Google changed my life,” “Google runs my life,” and “Google is my life.”

[ “Google * my life“ ]

If you know there’s a date on the page you’re seeking but you don’t know its format, specify several common formats using the OR operator. For example:

[ California election “Oct * 2003“ OR “10/*/03“ OR “October * 2003“ ]

When you know only part of the phrase you wish to find, consider using the * operator. Find the title of Sherry Russell’s book that can help you deal with the tragedies of 9/11 or losing a loved one.

[ “Conquering the * and * of Grief“ ]

Proximity searching can be useful when you want to find pages that include someone’s name in any of the following orders: first middle last, last first middle, first last, last first. To search for “Francis” adjacent or separated one word from “Coppola,” requires four queries:

[ “Francis Coppola“ ]
[ “Francis * Coppola“ ]
[ “Coppola Francis“ ]
[ “Coppola * Francis“ ]