The Stooges
Search and Destroy (1973) – Video from Apocalypse Now (1979) – 3:34
Posted on YouTube by
Mr. Rock and Roll
I started compiling a reference guide to search operators about a year ago using the paid version of Grok, I shelved it for a while and then came back and went over it with Chat GPT-5.6 Sol. It wasn’t magic, I’ve put a lot of work into this but most of the content was put together with AI. Now it’s been sitting again for a couple months again, I don’t think it will ever be completed but there’s enough in here for now.
As far a search operators go the basics are mostly the same, differences show up the deeper you go. Just learning a few basics and understanding what you can do can make a big difference in your search results, no one’s got time to memorize a bunch of this stuff. I wouldn’t try.
I use Google as the main reference in search engines because it’s the standard, personally I stay away from Google as much as possible. For searching I use Kagi, it’s subscription-based (about $10 a month). Kagi doesn’t track you, it’s ad free, you can personalize it by raising and lowering website rankings, create your own search groups and the results are clean, not as many but very strong as they take out the crap. Also, in Kagi pressing ? on a results page brings up the most common search operators and shortcuts.
Depending on the search or the site it may be easier to go through a search engine’s advanced search or the site’s search, it depends.
I’m not aware of any errors but there’s gotta be some.
– David
USC Libraries Research Guide – Boolean Concepts
USC Libraries Research Guide -Additional Search Options
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Requires all terms to match, narrowing the results. | climate AND change |
| Notes / Variations: Core Boolean operator. Some systems assume AND between words; others use OR or relevance-based defaults. | ||
| OR | Matches either term, broadening the results. | climate OR warming |
| Notes / Variations: Core Boolean operator; useful for alternatives and synonyms. Some systems also support | or ||. | ||
| NOT | Excludes results containing the following term. | climate NOT denial |
| Notes / Variations: Core Boolean operator. Some systems use AND NOT or a minus sign instead. | ||
| + | Requires the following term to be included, where supported. | +climate +change |
| Notes / Variations: Prefix operator supported by some search engines and database systems. Place it directly before the term. | ||
| – | Excludes the following term. | climate -denial |
| Notes / Variations: Common in web search. Place the minus sign directly before the term with no space. | ||
| ” “ | Searches for words together as a phrase. | “climate change” |
| Notes / Variations: Commonly used for exact phrase searching. Details such as punctuation and stemming can vary by system. | ||
| ( ) | Groups terms and operators to control logical precedence. | (climate OR global) AND warming |
| Notes / Variations: Useful for combining several Boolean expressions and avoiding ambiguity. | ||
| * | Wildcard or truncation symbol; its meaning varies by system. | climat* |
| Notes / Variations: In some database and Lucene-style searches it can match endings such as climate, climatic, or climatology. Some web search systems instead use * as a placeholder for unspecified word(s). | ||
| ? | Single-character wildcard; replaces one unknown character. | wom?n |
| Notes / Variations: Can match words such as woman and women. Supported by some database and Lucene-style search systems, but not universally. | ||
| ~ | Used for fuzzy matching or proximity searching, depending on the system. | roam~1 or “climate change”~5 |
| Notes / Variations: The number may represent edit distance, similarity, or word proximity. Syntax and meaning vary considerably between systems. | ||
| NEAR or NEAR/n | Finds terms occurring near one another. | climate NEAR/5 crisis |
| Notes / Variations: Proximity syntax varies. Other forms include NEAR(5), W/n, and similar operators. Word order is often not required. | ||
| ONEAR | Finds terms near one another while preserving their specified order. | climate ONEAR(5) change |
| Notes / Variations: Ordered proximity operator supported by some search systems. Exact syntax varies. | ||
| [x TO y] | Searches within a range of numbers, dates, or other ordered values. | date:[2020 TO 2025] |
| Notes / Variations: Lucene-style inclusive range syntax. Other systems may use different range formats such as 2020..2025. | ||
| /regex/ | Uses a regular expression to match a text pattern. | /climat(e|ic)/ |
| Notes / Variations: Advanced feature supported by some Lucene-style and specialized search systems. Not widely supported by general web search engines. | ||
| {n} | Requires a term or phrase to occur at least n times, in systems that support frequency searching. | “climate change”{3} |
| Notes / Variations: Specialized syntax used by some monitoring and database search tools. It is not a standard Boolean operator. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Basic Search Engines
- DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo – Advanced Syntax - Google
Google Advanced Search - Bing
Bing Advanced Search Options - Yahoo
Yahoo Advanced Search
Specialty Search Engines
| Engine | Description | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Google Scholar | Searches scholarly articles, theses, books, abstracts, court opinions, and citations. | author:; exact titles in quotation marks; advanced search by author, title, publication, and date; site: searches. |
| Semantic Scholar | Scientific literature search with citation and related-paper discovery. | Filters by author, journal or conference, publication type, and date range; citation graphs and paper summaries. |
| Startpage | Privacy-focused web search using results from Google and Bing without personalized search profiling. | Exact phrases; -, site:, filetype:, intitle:, before:, and after:. |
| Kagi | Paid, ad-free search engine focused on privacy and user-controlled search results. | Lenses for specialized searches; raise, lower, block, or pin websites in results. |
| Amazon Search | Product search across Amazon’s catalog. | Department, brand, price, rating, delivery, and other product filters. |
| eBay Advanced Search | Searches auction and fixed-price listings. | Filters by price, condition, listing format, seller, location, item number, and other listing properties. |
| Google News | Searches and aggregates news from many publishers. | Search by topic, location, or source; advanced search can include or exclude words, specify an exact phrase, choose a date range, or restrict by publisher site. |
| Bing News | Searches current news and groups coverage by topic. | News search, categories, local news, related coverage, and topic tracking. |
| Indeed Search | Searches job listings by keywords and location. | Filters for job type, salary, company, location, date posted, experience level, and related criteria. |
| GitHub Search | Searches repositories, code, issues, pull requests, users, and other GitHub content. | Code search supports AND, OR, NOT, regular expressions, and qualifiers including repo:, org:, language:, path:, symbol:, and content:. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Google is used here as the reference for basic web search. Many common operators work similarly elsewhere, but the exact syntax and behavior vary by search engine.
Google Search Help – Refine Google Searches
ahrefs blog – Google Search Operators: The Complete List (44 Advanced Operators)
Kinsta – Google Search Operators: 40 Commands to Know
Search Engine Land – 19 advanced Google Search Operators
YouTube – Google Like a Pro – All Advanced Search Operators Tutorial (Video)
Google supports operators for exact phrases, exclusions, specific sites, file types, dates, page titles, URLs, and page text. Some advanced operators are not officially documented by Google and may work inconsistently.
Google – Complex Queries Examples
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol |
Bing supports standard Boolean searching along with several field-specific search keywords. Ordinary multiple terms are treated as AND searches. OR and NOT should be capitalized, and there should be no space after the colon in operators such as site: or filetype:.
| Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “Brian Eno” |
| AND or & | Requires both terms or phrases. Bing treats ordinary multiple terms as AND by default. | climate AND policy |
| OR or | | Searches for either term or phrase. OR should be uppercase. | climate OR environment |
| NOT or – | Excludes a term or phrase. NOT should be uppercase. | jaguar -car |
| ( ) | Groups terms when combining Boolean operators. | (climate OR environment) AND policy |
| + | Requires the following term, including terms Bing might otherwise ignore. | Star Wars +the |
| site: | Limits results to a website, domain, or supported directory. | “Apollo 11” site:nasa.gov |
| filetype: | Limits results to a specified file type. | “climate change” filetype:pdf site:nasa.gov |
| intitle: | Requires a term to appear in the webpage title. | climate intitle:report |
| inbody: | Requires a term to appear in the body text of the webpage. | renewable inbody:hydrogen |
| inanchor: | Requires a term to appear in link anchor text pointing to the page. | climate inanchor:NASA |
| contains: | Finds webpages that contain links to a specified type of file. | music contains:mp3 |
| language: | Limits results to webpages in a specified language. | climate language:en |
| loc: / location: | Limits results to a specified country or region. | renewable energy loc:US |
| prefer: | Gives extra emphasis to a term without strictly requiring it. | jaguar prefer:animal |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Kagi supports a compact set of documented search operators and also adds features such as Lenses and bangs. Press ? on any Kagi results page to open its built-in operator and shortcut reference
| Operator / Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “Brian Eno” |
| site: | Limits results to a specific website or domain. | “Brian Eno” site:allmusic.com |
| inurl: | Finds pages whose URL contains a specified term or phrase. | headphones inurl:forum |
| intitle: | Finds pages whose title contains a specified term or phrase. | chess intitle:books |
| filetype: | Limits results to a particular file type. | us census 1860 filetype:pdf |
| AND | Requires all connected terms or phrases. | sweaters (christmas AND ugly) |
| OR | Searches for either of the connected terms or phrases. | recipes (szechuan OR cantonese) |
| + | Requires a term or phrase. | food +cat |
| – | Excludes a term or phrase. | food -dog |
| ( ) | Groups terms or expressions. | sweaters (christmas AND ugly) |
| * | Matches any word. | best * ever |
| !bang | Runs a shortcut search on another site or Kagi feature. | !r han shot first |
| Lenses | Applies a focused set of search rules, such as included or excluded websites, keywords, file type, region, or date limits. | Select Forums, Academic, Programming, PDFs, or a custom Lens |
| ? | Opens Kagi’s built-in help panel showing search operators, keyboard shortcuts, query shortcuts, and widgets. | Press ? on a search-results page |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
“global warming” -Mars site:nasa.gov
Exclude NASA pages mentioning Mars.
| Use Case | Query Example | Expected Results |
|---|---|---|
| Topic Search | “climate change” -politics site:nasa.gov | NASA pages about climate change that do not contain the excluded term. |
| Explanation: Requires the exact phrase “climate change,” excludes pages containing politics, and limits results to NASA. | ||
| Author or Name Search | “Katherine Johnson” filetype:pdf site:nasa.gov | NASA PDF documents that mention Katherine Johnson. |
| Explanation: Searches NASA for PDF files containing the exact name “Katherine Johnson.” | ||
| File Type Search | “electric vehicles” filetype:pdf site:energy.gov | Department of Energy PDFs about electric vehicles. |
| Explanation: Requires the phrase “electric vehicles,” limits results to PDF files, and restricts the search to energy.gov. | ||
| Recent File Search | cybersecurity filetype:pdf after:2025-01-01 site:nist.gov | More recent NIST PDF documents related to cybersecurity. |
| Explanation: Searches NIST PDFs containing cybersecurity and limits results to documents Google identifies as updated after January 1, 2025. | ||
| Date Range Search | “artificial intelligence” after:2024-01-01 before:2025-01-01 site:nist.gov | NIST pages about artificial intelligence within the specified date range. |
| Explanation: Combines after: and before: to limit results to a date range while restricting the search to NIST. | ||
| Subdomain Search | python tutorial site:docs.python.org | Python tutorial and documentation pages from the official Python documentation site. |
| Explanation: Restricts results to the docs.python.org subdomain. | ||
| Exact Phrase on a Site | “Apollo 11” site:nasa.gov | NASA pages containing the exact phrase “Apollo 11.” |
| Explanation: Combines an exact phrase with a site restriction. | ||
| Exclude a Site | “electric vehicle” -site:pinterest.com | Results about electric vehicles while excluding Pinterest. |
| Explanation: Searches for the exact phrase “electric vehicle” while excluding results from pinterest.com. | ||
| Alternative Terms | “electric car” OR “electric vehicle” site:energy.gov | Department of Energy pages discussing either electric cars or electric vehicles. |
| Explanation: Searches energy.gov for either of two related phrases. | ||
| Exact Document Title | “Electric Vehicle Basics” filetype:pdf site:energy.gov | The Department of Energy’s Electric Vehicle Basics PDF and closely matching documents. |
| Explanation: Combines an exact title, PDF restriction, and site restriction. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Disambiguation Techniques
| Technique | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Add the type of thing | Tells the search engine what category you mean. | Cars band • Mercury planet • Jaguar animal |
| Add an occupation or role | Separates people with common names or words that have other meanings. | Seal singer • Jordan basketball player • Prince musician |
| Add a location | Separates places with identical or similar names. | Paris Texas • Georgia country • Washington state |
| Add a company or organization | Distinguishes a product/person/topic associated with a particular organization. | Mercury Ford • Jordan Nike |
| Add a creator | Useful when titles are shared by several works. | Crash Cronenberg • Heat Michael Mann |
| Add the year | One of the best ways to separate films, albums, events, models, etc. | Crash 1996 • King Kong 1933 |
| Add both type and year | Even more precise for reused titles. | Crash film 1996 • Dune film 1984 |
| Add the medium | Separates works with the same title across books, films, TV, songs, games, etc. | It novel • It film • Halo game |
| Add a related person | Narrows something by association. | Wings Paul McCartney • Apollo 11 Buzz Aldrin |
| Add a related title or group | Useful for people, songs, characters, equipment, etc. | Brian Jones Rolling Stones • George Martin Beatles |
| Use the full name | Avoids ambiguity caused by surnames or shortened names. | Michael Jordan instead of Jordan |
| Add a middle name or initial | Helps distinguish people with identical names. | George H. W. Bush vs. George W. Bush |
| Use quotation marks | Keeps a multiword name or title together as an exact phrase. | "The Cars" • "A Perfect Circle" |
| Add descriptive context words | Plain-language context can be enough without any operator. | python programming • apple fruit • bass fish |
| Exclude the unwanted meaning | Useful when one interpretation overwhelms the results. | jaguar -car • mercury -planet |
| Exclude an exact unwanted phrase | More precise when the unwanted meaning is multiple words. | Wings -"Paul McCartney" |
| Restrict to a relevant site | Lets the site itself provide much of the context. | "The Cars" site:allmusic.com |
| Exclude a dominant site | Removes a site that is crowding out other meanings or sources. | "DIY bracelets" -site:pinterest.com |
| Add a model or product number | Extremely effective for equipment, electronics, vehicles and parts. | Sony STR-6055 • Canon AE-1 |
| Add a version or generation | Separates products/software with reused names. | Photoshop 2026 • iPad 10th generation |
| Add an edition | Useful for books, software, standards and reference works. | Gray's Anatomy 42nd edition |
| Add season, episode, volume or issue | Disambiguates serialized material. | Twilight Zone season 1 episode 8 |
| Add a time period or era | Helps when a name spans decades or changes meaning over time. | Chicago band 1970s • IBM 1980s |
| Add a country or language | Separates regional versions, artists, publications, products, etc. | Office UK • Office US • Taxi French film |
| Use an acronym together with its expansion | Helps when an acronym has several meanings. | "National Public Radio" NPR |
| Spell out the acronym | Often enough by itself to eliminate irrelevant meanings. | National Science Foundation instead of NSF |
| Add an alias or alternate name | Useful for people, bands, places and works known by several names. | David Bowie Ziggy Stardust |
| Add a scientific name | Eliminates ambiguity in plants, animals, diseases and chemicals. | cougar Puma concolor |
| Add a formal identifier | Very strong when one exists. | ISBN, DOI, catalog number, part number, patent number |
| Add a file type | Helps distinguish documentation from ordinary web pages. | "Sony STR-6055" filetype:pdf |
| Search a distinctive phrase from the thing | Excellent when you remember wording but not the title. | "PC Load Letter" |
| Combine several weak clues | Often better than relying on one perfect keyword. | British actor Doctor Who 1970s |
| Use OR for alternate names | Covers two possible names/spellings at once. | "Puff Daddy" OR "P. Diddy" |
| Use alternate spellings | Useful for British/US spelling, transliteration, historical spelling, etc. | color OR colour |
| Add the source type | Narrows a broad subject to the kind of information wanted. | Apollo 11 transcript • Beatles interview • radio manual |
| Use the appropriate search vertical | Sometimes changing where you search is the best disambiguation. | Images for objects, Maps for places, IMDb for films, Discogs for records |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Internet Archive – Search – Building Complex Queries
Internet Archive – Advanced Search
Internet Archive metadata search supports Boolean operators, exact phrases, wildcards, ranges, and field-specific searches. Fields such as title, creator, subject, collection, date, and media type can be combined to narrow results. This searches Archive.org item metadata.
| Operator/Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Requires both terms or conditions. | cats AND dogs |
| OR | Matches either term or condition. | cats OR dogs |
| AND NOT | Excludes matching terms or conditions. | cats AND NOT dogs |
| ( ) | Groups terms and controls how Boolean expressions are combined. | (cats OR dogs) AND pets |
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “feline friends” |
| * | Wildcard matching multiple characters. | cat* |
| ? | Wildcard matching a single character. | te?t |
| [x TO y] | Inclusive range search for dates, numbers, or other ordered fields. | date:[2020-01-01 TO 2025-12-31] |
| {x TO y} | Exclusive range search; excludes the two boundary values. | downloads:{1000 TO 5000} |
| title: | Searches the title field. | title:”War and Peace” |
| creator: | Searches the creator, author, director, performer, or similar creator field. | creator:”Charles Dickens” |
| description: | Searches the item description. | description:pets |
| subject: | Searches subjects, topics, or keywords assigned to an item. | subject:animals |
| collection: | Limits results to a collection identifier. | collection:opensource_audio |
| mediatype: | Filters by media type, such as texts, audio, movies, software, image, or data. | mediatype:texts |
| date: | Searches the publication or content date stored in the item’s metadata. | date:1922 |
| publicdate: | Searches the date the item became publicly available on Archive.org. | publicdate:[2025-01-01 TO 2025-12-31] |
| identifier: | Searches the item’s unique Internet Archive identifier. | identifier:example_item |
| language: | Filters by language metadata. | language:eng |
| contributor: | Searches contributor metadata. | contributor:Smithsonian |
| format: | Finds items containing a specified file format. | format:PDF |
| isbn: | Searches ISBN metadata when present. | isbn:9780140436143 |
| item_size: | Filters by total item size in bytes. | item_size:[1000000 TO 5000000] |
| downloads: | Filters by an item’s download count. | downloads:[1000 TO 5000] |
| licenseurl: | Filters by license metadata. Wildcards are useful for Creative Commons licenses. | licenseurl:http*by-nc-nd* |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Internet Archive – Using the Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine Search
The Wayback Machine CDX API searches the index of archived URL captures. It can limit results by URL, date, HTTP status, file type, and other capture metadata. It does not search the text contained inside archived web pages.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| url= | Specifies the URL to search for. This is the only required parameter. | url=example.com |
| matchType= | Controls how the URL is matched: exact, prefix, host, or domain. | matchType=prefix |
| from= | Limits results to captures on or after a date or timestamp. Values can range from a year to a full YYYYMMDDhhmmss timestamp. | from=2020 |
| to= | Limits results to captures on or before a date or timestamp. | to=20251231 |
| filter= | Filters results by a CDX field using a regular expression. | filter=statuscode:200 |
| filter=! | Excludes results matching a field value or regular expression. | filter=!statuscode:200 |
| limit= | Limits the maximum number of results returned. | limit=50 |
| output= | Requests JSON output. Without this parameter, results are returned as plain CDX text. | output=json |
| collapse= | Removes adjacent duplicate results based on a field. | collapse=digest |
| collapse=field:N | Collapses results using the first N characters of a field. Useful for reducing many captures from the same period. | collapse=timestamp:8 |
| fl= | Specifies which fields are returned and their order. | fl=timestamp,original,statuscode |
| timestamp | The archived capture timestamp. | fl=timestamp |
| original | The original archived URL. | fl=original |
| mimetype | The captured resource’s MIME type. | filter=mimetype:text/html |
| statuscode | The HTTP response status of the capture. | filter=statuscode:200 |
| digest | A content digest used to identify identical captures. | collapse=digest |
| length | The recorded size of the captured resource. | fl=timestamp,original,length |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Search features vary by site. Most are free and public. Some services may require a free account for certain features.
| Site | Description | Search |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence / Security | ||
| FBI Vault | FBI records released through FOIA, including files on people, organizations, events, investigations, and historical topics. | FBI Vault Search |
| Search Features: Keyword search; an Advanced Search form is also available. The current site does not document a comprehensive Boolean/operator syntax. | ||
| CIA Electronic Reading Room | CIA records released through FOIA and the 25-year declassification review program. |
Advanced Search Advanced Search Guide |
| Search Features: Full-text words or phrases; filters by collection, document title, document number, original classification, publication date or date range, content type, and case number. | ||
| National Security Agency / Central Security Service | Declassified NSA records, cryptologic history, historical releases, FOIA material, and Inspector General reports. | Declassification & Transparency Initiatives |
| Search Features: Browse and search released records by collection or topic. No general advanced Boolean syntax is documented for the current release pages. | ||
| Department of War Office of Inspector General | FOIA-released Inspector General audits, evaluations, investigations, logs, and related records. | FOIA Reading Room |
| Search Features: Keyword or title search; records can also be browsed by tags and categories. Separate OIG reports are available through the Reports section. | ||
| Archives / History | ||
| National Archives | Federal archival records, digitized materials, authority records, Presidential Library material, and NARA FOIA records. |
National Archives Catalog Electronic Reading Room Catalog Search Tips |
| Search Features: Implicit AND; AND, OR, NOT; exact phrases in quotes; parentheses; trailing wildcard *; Advanced Search filters by data source, date, type of material, level of description, location, title, creator, identifiers, and other fields. | ||
| Library of Congress | Books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, newspapers, sound recordings, films, and other Library of Congress collections. |
Digital Collections Library Catalog Advanced Search |
| Search Features: Exact phrases; AND, OR, NOT; Advanced Search fields for title, author/creator, subject, identifiers, series, and place of publication. Field operators include Contains All, Contains Any, Exact Phrase, and Starts With. Filters include format, language, location, and publication year. | ||
| U.S. Department of State | Released diplomatic records, correspondence, cables, memoranda, reports, and other State Department records. | Search Released Documents |
| Search Features: Full-text search; exclude terms; document-date and posted-date ranges; case number; sender and recipient; document type. OCR quality can affect full-text results. | ||
| Science / Data | ||
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS scientific publications covering geology, water, ecosystems, hazards, maps, and related earth science. | USGS Publications Warehouse |
| Search Features: Keyword and metadata search; Advanced Search fields include publication title, contributing office, contributor, ORCID, publication year or year limits, publication type/subtype, series, and report number. | ||
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA records released through FOIA and other publicly available environmental and regulatory documents. |
EPA FOIA Reading Room EPA FOIA |
| Search Features: Search by document type, document name, published-date range, text contained in the record, and available custom fields. | ||
| U.S. Patent and Trademark Office | Searches U.S. patents and published patent applications. |
Patent Public Search Basic Patent Public Search Advanced |
| Search Features: AND, OR, NOT, XOR; proximity operators ADJn, NEARn, WITHn, and SAMEn; wildcards and truncation; field codes such as .TTL. for title and .AB. for abstract; numeric and date ranges on supported indexes. | ||
| PubMed | Biomedical and life-sciences literature maintained by the National Library of Medicine. | PubMed Advanced Search |
| Search Features: AND, OR, NOT; exact phrases; field tags such as [ti] for title, [au] for author, [mh] for MeSH terms, and [dp] for publication date; wildcard *; date ranges; proximity syntax such as “heart failure”[tiab:~3]. | ||
| Other Transparency | ||
| Congress.gov | Federal legislation, bills, resolutions, amendments, Congressional Record material, committee material, and related legislative information. | Congress.gov Advanced Search |
| Search Features: Words and phrases; Boolean searching; filters by Congress, legislation type, sponsor/cosponsor, committee, subject or policy area, legislative action/status, and dates. Advanced text searching also supports proximity queries. | ||
| U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | Company filings and disclosures submitted through the SEC’s EDGAR system. | EDGAR Search Filings |
| Search Features: Multiple ordinary terms imply AND; the literal AND command is not required or recognized. Supports OR, NOT or – for exclusion, exact phrases, trailing wildcard *, and NEAR(N) proximity. Filters include company, ticker, CIK, filing type, location, and date range. | ||
| Data.gov | Government open-data catalog linking to datasets maintained by the agencies and organizations that publish them. | Data.gov Catalog |
| Search Features: Keyword search; filters by geographic area, keyword, organization, organization type, publisher, spatial-data status, and whether a direct download is available. | ||
| USAspending.gov | Federal award and spending data, including contracts, grants, loans, and other financial assistance. | USAspending Advanced Search |
| Search Features: Keyword search plus extensive filters including time period, award type, agency, location, recipient, recipient type, award amount, award ID, Assistance Listing, NAICS, PSC, and other award fields. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Library / Database | Description | Guide / Search |
|---|---|---|
| PLOS (Public Library of Science) | Nonprofit open-access publisher covering science, medicine, engineering, and related fields. | PLOS Find and Read Articles |
| Key Search Features: Keyword and advanced search; fields and filters include author, subject, article type, journal, and other article metadata. Search alerts are also available. | ||
| SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) | Open-access journal network covering research from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and other participating collections. | SciELO Search |
| Key Search Features: AND and OR; field indexes including ti: (title), au: (author), kw: (keywords), subject:, ab: (abstract), publication_year:, doi:, and issn:. Results can also be filtered by collection, journal, language, year, and document type. | ||
| Zenodo | CERN-hosted repository for research papers, datasets, software, presentations, images, and other research outputs. | Zenodo Search Guide |
| Key Search Features: AND, OR, NOT, +, -, exact phrases, field searches, ranges, wildcards, fuzzy search, proximity, and regular expressions. Searchable fields include title, creators, DOI, keywords, publication date, resource type, access rights, and many others. | ||
| DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books) | Discovery service indexing peer-reviewed open-access books and chapters from scholarly publishers. | DOAB Search Help |
| Key Search Features: General keyword search plus Advanced Search fields for title, contributor, publisher, funder, language, date issued, subject, collection, DOI, publication type, license, and ISBN. | ||
| RePEc / IDEAS | Bibliographic database for economics research including articles, working papers, books, chapters, and related material. | IDEAS Search |
| Key Search Features: + for AND, | for OR, ~ for NOT, quotation marks for phrases, parentheses for grouping, automatic stemming and synonyms, date limits, and JEL classification browsing. Wildcards are not used. | ||
| PhilPapers | Philosophy bibliography and research index organized by subjects and specialist categories. | PhilPapers Search Help |
| Key Search Features: & for AND, | for OR, – for exclusion, * for truncation, proximity searching, and field searches such as @title, @authors, @descriptors, and @source. | ||
| NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) | Research database for astronomy, astrophysics, physics, and related literature. | ADS Search Syntax |
| Key Search Features: AND is the default; OR, NOT, and – are supported. Extensive field searching includes author:, title:, abs:, year:, doi:, bibstem:, object:, and full:. Supports year ranges and first-author searches using ^. | ||
| CiteSeerX | Scientific-literature digital library best known for computer and information science and automated citation indexing. | CiteSeerX |
| Key Search Features: Keyword and document search with citation and related-document information. Current public documentation does not clearly define a comprehensive advanced operator syntax. | ||
| ScienceOpen | Scholarly discovery platform covering articles and other research records across disciplines. | ScienceOpen Search |
| Key Search Features: Phrase search and configurable filters; search separately across content, authors, and collections. Searches can be saved, sorted, shared, and exported as citations. | ||
| Paperity | Multidisciplinary aggregator of open-access journal articles. | Paperity Search |
| Key Search Features: Full-text article search and journal browsing. No comprehensive advanced Boolean or field-search syntax is currently documented. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Database | Description | Search / Help |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed | Free biomedical and life-sciences literature database maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Includes citations and abstracts; full text availability varies. |
PubMed Help PubMed Advanced Search |
| Key Search Features: AND, OR, NOT; exact phrases; field tags such as [au] for author, [ti] for title, [mh] for MeSH, and [dp] for publication date; wildcard *; date ranges; proximity such as “heart failure”[tiab:~3]. | ||
| Google Scholar | Free search engine for scholarly articles, theses, books, conference papers, court opinions, and other academic literature. |
Google Scholar Help Google Scholar Search |
| Key Search Features: author: searches; exact titles or phrases in quotation marks; Advanced Search fields for author, title, publication, and date; year filtering and relevance/date sorting. | ||
| Semantic Scholar | Free AI-assisted scholarly search and discovery service with citation graphs, related-paper discovery, and paper summaries. |
Semantic Scholar Tutorials Semantic Scholar Search |
| Key Search Features: Quoted phrases are supported. Normal website search does not support Boolean operators or wildcards. Filters include field of study, date range, publication type, author, journal, and conference; results can be sorted by relevance, citations, influence, or recency. | ||
| CORE | Open scholarly infrastructure that aggregates research from repositories, preprint servers, and journals, with a strong focus on freely available full text. |
CORE Search About CORE |
| Key Search Features: Keyword-based research search and discovery across a very large open-access corpus. CORE also provides tools for locating freely accessible versions of papers. No comprehensive operator syntax is documented for the normal web search. | ||
| arXiv | Free repository of preprints and research papers in physics, mathematics, computer science, statistics, economics, and related fields. | arXiv Advanced Search |
| Key Search Features: Advanced Search combines terms with Boolean operators and specific fields; subject and date filters; exact phrases in quotation marks; * matches multiple characters and ? matches one character. | ||
| DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) | Curated index of open-access scholarly journals and articles across many disciplines. |
DOAJ Journals DOAJ Articles |
| Key Search Features: Search journals or articles; AND or OR matching; searchable fields include title, keywords, subject, ISSN, DOI, publisher, publisher country, and journal language. | ||
| BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) | Multidisciplinary academic search engine developed by Bielefeld University Library with strong coverage of institutional repositories and open-access material. |
BASE Search Help BASE Advanced Search |
| Key Search Features: Basic and Advanced Search with field-specific searching and filters. Advanced options can narrow results by fields and bibliographic characteristics; exact syntax should be checked in BASE Help. | ||
| Europe PMC | Free biomedical and life-sciences database containing articles, abstracts, preprints, full text, grants, citations, and related research information. |
Europe PMC Search Guide Europe PMC Advanced Search |
| Key Search Features: AND, OR, NOT; AND is the default; exact phrases; wildcard *; field searches such as TITLE:, AUTH:, JOURNAL:, DOI:, PUB_YEAR:, and PMCID:; date and full-text filters; article-section searching. | ||
| ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) | Free U.S. Department of Education database covering education research, reports, journal articles, and other education literature. |
ERIC Advanced Search Tips ERIC Search |
| Key Search Features: Exact phrases; AND and OR; + requires a term and – excludes a term; field searches such as author:, title:, abstract:, descriptor:, source:, and pubyear:; filters for peer-reviewed and ERIC full-text material. | ||
| OpenAlex | Open catalog of scholarly works, authors, institutions, sources, topics, funders, and citation relationships. |
OpenAlex Works OpenAlex Query Language |
| Key Search Features: Basic website search uses ordinary text plus filters for year, work type, open-access status, institution, and other fields. The Advanced Query Builder/OQL supports AND, OR, NOT, exact phrases, wildcards, proximity, ranges, field-specific searches, and semantic search. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Library and academic database search syntax is not standardized. Boolean logic, phrase searching, truncation, proximity searching, and field searching are widely available, but the exact operators and field codes vary by database. Advanced Search forms are often the easiest way to build field-specific searches without memorizing syntax.
Academic/Library Database Complex Queries
| Database | Query Example | Expected Results |
|---|---|---|
| EBSCO | AU Smith AND TI “climate change” | Works by authors named Smith with “climate change” in the title. |
| Explanation: Searches the Author field for Smith and the Title field for the exact phrase “climate change.” | ||
| ProQuest | AUTHOR(Smith) AND TITLE(“climate change”) AND YR(>2015) NOT SUBJECT(politics) | Post-2015 works by Smith with “climate change” in the title, excluding politics as a subject. |
| Explanation: Combines author, title, publication-year, and subject fields. | ||
| ProQuest | (“renewable energy” OR solar OR wind) AND (economic PRE/5 policy) | Documents discussing renewable energy and closely related economic-policy language. |
| Explanation: Uses synonyms plus ordered proximity. PRE/5 requires economic to occur within five words before policy. | ||
| JSTOR | ti:”climate change” AND au:Smith NOT politics | JSTOR items by Smith with “climate change” in the title that do not contain politics. |
| Explanation: Searches the title field for an exact phrase, limits by author, and excludes politics. | ||
| JSTOR | “renewable energy”~10 AND policy | Items where renewable-energy terminology occurs near related policy discussion. |
| Explanation: Finds renewable and energy within ten words of each other, together with policy. | ||
| Scopus | TITLE-ABS-KEY(“renewable energy”) AND PUBYEAR > 2020 | Scopus documents published after 2020 discussing renewable energy. |
| Explanation: Searches titles, abstracts, and keywords and limits results by publication year. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Common field-search examples include EBSCO AU Smith, ProQuest AUTHOR(Smith), PubMed Smith[au], Scopus AUTH(Smith), and JSTOR au:Smith. Always check the database’s own search help when constructing complex queries.
Tip: For unfamiliar databases, start with Advanced Search. It exposes the supported fields and operators without requiring you to know that database’s command syntax.
| Operator / Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Requires both terms or conditions. | climate AND policy |
| Notes / Variations: Widely supported. Some databases also assume AND between unconnected search terms. | ||
| OR | Matches either term or condition. | climate OR warming |
| Notes / Variations: Widely supported. Useful for synonyms and alternate terminology. | ||
| NOT / AND NOT | Excludes a term or condition. | climate NOT denial |
| Notes / Variations: Syntax varies. PubMed, ProQuest, Ovid and JSTOR use NOT; Scopus uses AND NOT. | ||
| ( ) | Groups terms to control how Boolean expressions are combined. | (climate OR warming) AND policy |
| Notes / Variations: Useful for complex searches and synonym groups. | ||
| ” “ | Searches words together as a phrase. | “climate change” |
| Notes / Variations: Phrase behavior varies. PubMed uses a phrase index; Scopus quotation marks perform a loose phrase search and braces { } provide exact phrase matching. | ||
| * | Truncation or wildcard for multiple characters. | climat* |
| Notes / Variations: Supported by PubMed, ProQuest, Ovid, Scopus, JSTOR and many other systems, but rules differ. | ||
| ? | Wildcard for a single character or a small number of optional characters, depending on the system. | wom?n |
| Notes / Variations: Supported by systems such as JSTOR and ProQuest. PubMed does not use ? as a wildcard. | ||
| Proximity | Finds terms occurring within a specified number of words of each other. | climate NEAR/5 policy |
| Notes / Variations: Syntax varies: ProQuest NEAR/n or PRE/n; Ovid ADJn; Scopus W/n or PRE/n; JSTOR “terms”~N; PubMed “terms”[tiab:~N]. | ||
| Author field | Limits the search to author names. | Smith[au] |
| Notes / Variations: Examples: PubMed Smith[au]; EBSCO AU Smith; ProQuest AUTHOR(Smith); Scopus AUTH(Smith); JSTOR au:Smith. | ||
| Title field | Limits the search to document titles. | climate[ti] |
| Notes / Variations: Examples: PubMed [ti]; EBSCO TI; ProQuest TITLE(); Scopus TITLE(); JSTOR ti:. | ||
| Abstract field | Limits terms to the abstract. | adaptation[ab] |
| Notes / Variations: Examples: PubMed [ab]; EBSCO AB; ProQuest ABSTRACT(); Scopus ABS(). JSTOR also offers Abstract in Advanced Search. | ||
| Subject / Controlled Vocabulary | Searches assigned subjects, descriptors, keywords, or controlled vocabulary. | climate[mh] |
| Notes / Variations: Examples include PubMed MeSH [mh], EBSCO subject fields, ProQuest subject fields, and Scopus KEY or INDEXTERMS. | ||
| Journal / Source | Limits results to a journal or publication. | science[ta] |
| Notes / Variations: Examples: PubMed [ta]; EBSCO SO; Scopus SRCTITLE(); JSTOR jo:. ProQuest provides publication fields. | ||
| Publication Date | Restricts results by publication year or date range. | 2020:2025[dp] |
| Notes / Variations: Syntax varies. PubMed uses date ranges with [dp]; ProQuest uses forms such as YR(2020-2025); Scopus uses PUBYEAR operators. Most interfaces also provide date filters. | ||
| DOI | Searches by Digital Object Identifier. | 10.1038/example[aid] |
| Notes / Variations: PubMed searches DOI through the Article Identifier [aid] field. Scopus supports DOI(). Other databases provide their own DOI fields. | ||
| ISBN / ISSN | Searches standard book or serial identifiers. | 9781234567890[isbn] |
| Notes / Variations: PubMed supports [isbn]; Scopus has ISBN and ISSN fields; WorldCat provides dedicated identifier indexes. | ||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Biomedical Databases (e.g., PubMed) Complex Queries
| Query Example | Expected Results |
|---|---|
| (“climate change”[ti] OR “global warming”[ti]) AND (“Mental Health”[mh] OR Anxiety[mh]) NOT covid*[ti] | Articles focused on mental-health aspects of climate change, excluding COVID-focused titles. |
| Explanation: Requires climate-change terminology in the title and Mental Health or Anxiety MeSH indexing, while excluding titles containing COVID terms. | |
| (vaccin*[tiab] OR immunization[tiab]) AND (child*[tiab] OR pediatric*[tiab]) AND (efficacy[tiab] OR effectiveness[tiab]) AND 2020/01/01:2025/12/31[dp] | Studies from 2020–2025 about vaccine efficacy or effectiveness in children. |
| Explanation: Searches title/abstract text for vaccine, pediatric, and effectiveness concepts and limits publication dates to 2020–2025. | |
| “climate policy”[tiab:~5] AND 2020:2025[dp] | Recent PubMed records where climate and policy appear close together in the title or abstract. |
| Explanation: Finds climate and policy within five words of each other in titles or abstracts and limits results to 2020–2025. | |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Engine / Database | Description | Strengths |
|---|---|---|
| Discogs | Community-built database of physical and digital music releases, artists, labels, and credits. | Especially strong for specific editions, pressings, catalog numbers, labels, formats, and marketplace information. |
| Limitations: Metadata quality and completeness depend on community submissions. Advanced Search / Filters: Advanced Search and filters for artist, release title, label, catalog number, barcode, format, country, genre, style, and year. |
||
| AllMusic | Editorial music database with artist biographies, album information, reviews, ratings, genres, styles, moods, and themes. | Strong editorial information and music-discovery classifications. |
| Limitations: Less detailed for specific pressings and editions than Discogs or MusicBrainz. Advanced Search / Filters: Advanced filters include genre/style, release date, rating, recording type, mood, theme, and artist. |
||
| SoundCloud | Streaming platform centered on uploaded tracks, artists, DJ sets, remixes, podcasts, albums, and playlists. | Strong for independent music, remixes, DJ material, demos, and newly uploaded audio. |
| Limitations: Metadata depends heavily on information supplied by uploaders. Advanced Search / Filters: Search by track, artist, album, or playlist; filters include upload date, duration, tags, and result type. |
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| MusicBrainz | Open, community-maintained music metadata database covering artists, releases, recordings, labels, works, and related entities. | Very detailed metadata, persistent IDs, relationships between entities, and a public API. |
| Limitations: Community-entered data can vary in completeness. Advanced Search / Filters: Advanced indexed search supports Boolean operators, phrases, wildcards, fuzzy search, regular expressions, ranges, and fields such as artist:, release:, date:, country:, label:, and tag:. |
||
| Bandcamp | Direct-to-fan music platform with extensive independent, underground, and niche-music coverage. | Strong for independent releases, labels, obscure genres, artist pages, and physical formats. |
| Limitations: Search and classification depend heavily on artist-supplied metadata and tags. Advanced Search / Filters: Search artists, albums, and tracks; Discover supports genre, subgenre, tags, artist location, and format. Multiple tags can be combined. |
||
| Genius | Lyrics and song-information database with community annotations, artist pages, albums, and song credits. | Strong for lyrics, lyric explanations, song references, credits, and annotations. |
| Limitations: Coverage and annotation depth vary greatly by artist and song. Advanced Search / Filters: Search by artist, song, album, or lyric text. No comprehensive advanced operator syntax is documented. |
||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Discogs – How to Browse & Search in the Database
Discogs – Advanced Search
Discogs search is primarily keyword- and filter-based rather than operator-based. Exact phrases can be searched with quotation marks. Search results can then be narrowed by format, genre, style, year, and other fields. Advanced Search provides additional fields such as catalog number, matrix/runout information, and contributor roles.
| Search Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “dark side of the moon” |
| Keyword Search | Searches releases, artists, labels, and related database entries using entered words. | pink floyd moon |
| Release / Master / Artist / Label | Limits results to a specific type of Discogs database entry. | Select Release to show releases only. |
| Format | Filters by physical or digital format. | Vinyl, CD, Cassette |
| Format Description | Filters by more specific format details. | LP, 12″, Promo, White Label, Reissue |
| Genre | Filters results by broad musical genre. | Electronic |
| Style | Filters results by a more specific musical style. | Synth-pop |
| Multiple Filters | Multiple selections use strict matching, so results must satisfy all selected filters. | Genre: Electronic + Genre: Reggae |
| Year Range | Limits results to releases within a starting and ending year. | 1980 to 1990 |
| Advanced Search | Searches additional database fields such as catalog number, matrix/runout information, and contributor roles. | Catalog Number: FAC 73 |
| r: | Jumps directly to a Discogs release when you know its release ID. | r:1234 |
| u: | Jumps directly to a Discogs user profile. | u:username |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
AllMusic’s Advanced Album Search is filter-based rather than operator-based. It searches albums using genre/style, release date, rating, recording type, mood, theme, and main performer. Results can be sorted by year, album title, or AllMusic rating.
| Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Genre & Style | Filters by broad genres and more specific musical styles. | Genre: Rock; Style: Alternative/Indie Rock |
| Release Date | Limits results by release or reissue date range. | 1970–1979 |
| AllMusic Rating | Filters by AllMusic’s editorial star rating. | 4 Stars or higher |
| Recording Type | Filters by album or release type. | Studio Recordings, Live Recordings, Singles, EPs, Remixes, Compilations, Various Artists |
| Album Mood | Filters by descriptive moods associated with the album. | Aggressive, Relaxed, Romantic |
| Album Theme | Filters by activities, situations, or themes associated with the album. | Late Night, Road Trip, Party |
| Main Performer | Limits results to albums by a specific primary artist or performer. | Artist: Miles Davis |
| Sort By | Sorts the filtered results by year, album title, or AllMusic rating. | Sort by: Year |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
SoundCloud search is keyword-based and personalized. On the web, results can be narrowed by result type, upload date, duration, and tags. SoundCloud does not document a general Boolean search syntax for normal web search.
| Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Result Type | Limits results to a category such as Tracks, People, Albums, or Playlists. | Search: The Beatles → select Tracks |
| Upload Date | Limits tracks by when they were uploaded. | Search: The Beatles → Upload Date → Last week |
| Duration | Limits tracks by length. | Search: The Beatles → Duration → Long |
| Tag | Filters by user-defined tags such as genre, style, mood, or theme. | Search: electronic → Tag → select a tag |
| Everything | Shows a mixture of the most relevant result types for your search. | Search: The Beatles → select Everything |
| SoundCloud Go+ Tracks | Shows premium tracks available through SoundCloud Go+. | Search: The Beatles → select SoundCloud Go+ tracks |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
MusicBrainz – Search Documentation
MusicBrainz – Indexed Search Syntax
MusicBrainz – Search
MusicBrainz indexed search uses Apache Lucene syntax. It supports Boolean operators, phrase searches, wildcards, fuzzy matching, regular expressions, ranges, and entity-specific fields. Search fields vary depending on whether you are searching artists, releases, recordings, works, labels, or other MusicBrainz entities. Direct search is simpler and does not support Boolean logic
| Operator/Syntax | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Term | Searches a word in the default field or fields for the selected entity type. | rock |
| ” “ | Treats multiple words as a phrase. | “tori amos” |
| field: | Searches a specific MusicBrainz metadata field. Available fields depend on the entity being searched. | artist:royksopp |
| AND | Requires both terms or conditions. | begin:1984 AND type:group |
| OR | Matches either term or condition. | rock OR jazz |
| NOT or – | Excludes a term or condition. | rock NOT pop or -house |
| ( ) | Groups expressions when combining Boolean conditions. | (rock OR jazz) AND country:US |
| ? | Single-character wildcard. Cannot be the first character. | te?t |
| * | Wildcard matching zero or more characters. Cannot be the first character. | test* |
| ~ | Fuzzy search for terms with similar spelling. An optional similarity value from 0 to 1 can be supplied. | roam~ or roam~0.8 |
| /regex/ | Regular-expression search. Regex normally operates within individual tokens rather than across multiple words. | artist:/Rachmanino(ff|v)/ |
| [start TO end] | Inclusive range search for supported dates or numeric fields. | date:[1999-01-01 TO 1999-12-31] |
| true / false | Values used with Boolean metadata fields. | ended:true or video:true |
| artist: | Searches artist information associated with the selected entity. | artist:”The Beatles” |
| release: | Searches release titles. | release:”Abbey Road” |
| recording: | Searches recording or track titles. | recording:”Come Together” |
| date: | Searches release dates. Full dates, partial dates, and ranges can be used. | date:1969 |
| country: | Searches release or artist country using the appropriate two-letter country code. | country:GB |
| label: | Searches record-label metadata. | label:”Parlophone” |
| catno: | Searches release catalog numbers. | catno:PCS7088 |
| barcode: | Searches release barcode metadata. | barcode:5099969944901 |
| tag: | Searches MusicBrainz tags. | tag:psychedelic |
| format: | Searches release or recording media formats. | format:vinyl |
| primarytype: | Filters by the primary release-group type. | primarytype:album |
| dur: | Searches recording duration in milliseconds. | dur:[120000 TO 180000] |
| video: | Filters recordings by whether they are marked as video recordings. | video:true |
| MBID fields | Entity-specific fields such as arid, reid, rgid, rid, and wid search by MusicBrainz Identifier. | arid:0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3 |
| Advanced Query Example | Explanation | Expected Results |
|---|---|---|
| artist:”The Beatles” AND date:[1965-01-01 TO 1970-12-31] AND primarytype:album | Limits releases to The Beatles, a 1965–1970 date range, and album-type release groups. | Beatles album releases within the specified date range. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Bandcamp search is primarily keyword-based. It can search combinations of artist, track, album, and label names. For broader discovery, Bandcamp’s Discover tool filters music by genres, tags, artist location, and format. Multiple tags can be combined to narrow results. Bandcamp does not document a general Boolean/operator syntax for normal search.
| Search Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Search | Searches artists, albums, tracks, and labels. | Beatles Abbey Road |
| Combined Names | Combines artist, track, album, or label names to make a search more specific. | Artist name + album name |
| Result Type | Search results can be narrowed to categories such as artists & labels, albums, tracks, or fans. | Albums |
| Genre | Discover filters music by broad genre. | Electronic |
| Subgenre / Tag | Discover uses tags and subgenres to narrow music discovery. | Ambient, Shoegaze, Synthwave |
| Multiple Tags | Multiple tags can be combined in Discover to create narrower searches. | Experimental + Bagpipes |
| Artist Location | Discover can filter music by the artist’s location. | Berlin |
| Format | Discover can filter by formats and merchandise categories. | Vinyl, CD, Cassette |
| Artists You Follow | Discover can be limited to releases from artists and labels you follow. | Artists you follow |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Search Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Search | Searches Genius for songs, artists, albums, lyrics, and related content. | David Bowie Heroes |
| Song Title | Searches for a specific song title. Adding the artist name usually improves precision. | Heroes David Bowie |
| Artist | Searches for an artist and links to the artist’s Genius page and songs. | David Bowie |
| Album | Searches for album pages and songs associated with an album. | Low David Bowie |
| Lyrics | Can locate songs using remembered words or phrases from the lyrics. | we can be heroes just for one day |
| Annotations | Song pages may include line-by-line annotations explaining lyrics, references, and context. | Open a song page and select an annotated lyric. |
| Credits | Song pages may include songwriting, production, featured-artist, and other credits. | Open the song’s Credits section. |
| Related Songs / Artist Pages | Artist and song pages provide links to additional songs, albums, and related Genius content. | Open an artist page to browse songs and albums. |
| Boolean / Advanced Operators | Genius does not document a general AND, OR, NOT, wildcard, or field-prefix syntax for normal website search. | Use ordinary keywords instead. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Image search tools fall into two broad types: keyword image search and visual/reverse image search. Keyword search finds images related to words or phrases and often provides filters such as size, color, type, date, or license. Visual search starts with an image and can find matching or similar images, pages containing the image, objects, products, or related information. Features vary substantially by service.
| Engine | Description | Strengths |
|---|---|---|
| Openverse | Search engine for openly licensed and public-domain images and audio from many repositories. | Useful when licensing and reuse matter; aggregates many open collections and provides attribution information. |
| Limitations: Not a general web-image index or reverse-image search engine. License information should still be verified at the original source. Search Features: Keyword search; filters for license, source, file extension, category, image size, and aspect ratio. |
||
| Google Images / Google Lens | Google Images provides keyword-based web image search. Google Lens adds visual search using an uploaded, pasted, photographed, or selected image. | Large web index; strong visual recognition; Lens can search an entire image or a selected portion and refine results with text. |
| Limitations: Usage-rights information comes from source sites and should be independently verified. Visual recognition can produce incorrect matches. Search Features: Google Images filters include size, color, type, time, and usage rights. Standard Google operators such as quotes, -, site:, before:, after:, and filetype: can also help. Lens supports image upload, visual matching, object recognition, cropping, and text-assisted refinement. |
||
| Bing Images | Microsoft’s web image search with integrated Bing Visual Search. | Strong filtering plus visual search for similar images, products, source pages, and related information. |
| Limitations: Availability of particular filters and visual-search features can vary by device, browser, or region. Search Features: Filters include size, color, type, layout, people, license, and date. Visual Search accepts uploaded images, pasted images or URLs, drag-and-drop images, and camera images. |
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| TinEye | Reverse-image search engine designed to find copies and modified versions of a supplied image. | Useful for tracing image reuse, locating higher-resolution copies, and finding altered versions. |
| Limitations: Searches for visual matches rather than identifying the subject of an image. A missing result does not mean the image does not exist elsewhere online. Search Features: Upload, paste, drag, or supply an image URL. Sort by Best Match, Most Changed, Biggest Image, Newest, or Oldest; filter by domain, collection, or stock-image results; compare matched images. |
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Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Openverse’s normal website search is mostly keyword- and filter-based. Quotation marks provide exact-phrase searching. More specific field searches such as creator=, title=, and tags= are API parameters rather than operators typed into the normal search box.
| Search Feature / Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Search | Searches titles, descriptions, and tags. Results are ranked by relevance, with title matches weighted heavily. | puppy dog |
| ” “ | Searches an exact phrase in the same word order and bypasses normal stemming. | “puppy dog” |
| q= | API parameter for a general text query across title, description, and tags. | q=”climate change” |
| creator= | API field search limited to the creator name. Used without q=. | creator=Claude Monet |
| title= | API field search limited to the title. Used without q=. | title=madame |
| tags= | API field search limited to tag names. Used without q=. | tags=nature |
| Combined Field Search | Creator, title, and tag field queries can be combined when q= is not used. | creator=Claude Monet & title=madame |
| extension= | Filters results by file extension. | extension=jpg |
| category= | Filters results by Openverse media category. | Select a category in the Openverse filters. |
| source= | Limits results to a particular Openverse source or collection provider. | source=flickr |
| license= | Filters results by a specific Creative Commons or public-domain license. | license=by |
| license_type= | Filters by broader license permissions, such as commercial use or modification. | Use the license filters in Openverse. |
| aspect_ratio= | Filters images by shape or aspect ratio. | aspect_ratio=square |
| size= | Filters images by descriptive image size. | size=large |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Operator / Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| All These Words | Finds results containing all entered words. | puppy dog |
| ” “ | Searches for an exact word or phrase. | “Labrador retriever” |
| OR | Searches for either of two or more terms. | Labrador OR terrier |
| – | Excludes a word or phrase. | puppy -bulldog |
| site: | Limits results to a particular website or domain. | site:nasa.gov Mars |
| filetype: | Limits results to a particular file type. | diagram filetype:png |
| before: / after: | Limits results by the date Google associates with the source page. | space after:2025-01-01 |
| Image Size | Filters by image size. Advanced Image Search also offers several minimum dimension and megapixel choices. | Large or Larger than 4 MP |
| Aspect Ratio | Filters by image shape. | Tall, Square, Wide, Panoramic |
| Color | Filters by full color, black and white, transparency, or a selected dominant color. | Red |
| Image Type | Filters by categories such as face, photo, clip art, line drawing, or animated image. | Photo |
| Time | Filters Image results by when the source page or image was published or updated. | Past week |
| Region | Advanced Image Search limits results to pages associated with a selected country or region. | United States |
| Site / Domain | Advanced Image Search restricts results to a website or domain. | example.com |
| File Type | Advanced Image Search filters by image format. | JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, SVG, WEBP, ICO, RAW |
| Usage Rights | Filters images according to attached license information. | Creative Commons licenses |
| Google Lens – Image Search | Uses an uploaded, photographed, or selected image as the search instead of only text. | Upload a photograph to find related results. |
| Google Lens – Select Area | Searches only a selected portion of an image. | Crop the search area around an object. |
| Google Lens – Similar Images | Can return visually similar images and websites containing the same or a similar image. | Find other copies or visually related images. |
| Google Lens – Add Text | Combines an image search with additional keywords or a question to refine the result. | Upload a chair photo and add “mid-century designer”. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Bing Images combines keyword searching, Boolean operators, image filters, and visual search. Results can be filtered by size, color, type, layout, people, license, and date. Bing Visual Search can use an uploaded image, pasted image or URL, webcam photo, or selected image to find similar images, source pages, products, and related information.
| Operator / Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “climate change” |
| AND | Requires both terms or phrases. Bing normally treats multiple search terms as AND by default. | climate AND policy |
| OR | Searches for either term or phrase. OR must be uppercase. | climate OR warming |
| NOT or – | Excludes a term or phrase. NOT must be uppercase. | climate NOT denial or climate -denial |
| ( ) | Groups terms when combining Boolean operators. | (climate OR warming) AND policy |
| Image Size | Filters by image size, including predefined sizes and custom dimensions. | Large |
| Color | Filters by color characteristics or a selected dominant color. | Blue |
| Type | Filters by image type, such as photograph, clip art, or other available categories. | Photograph |
| Layout | Filters by image orientation or shape. | Wide |
| People | Filters images containing people using the available people options. | Faces |
| Date | Filters results by date or freshness. | Past week |
| License | Filters images according to the usage-rights information associated with them. | Public domain |
| Visual Search | Searches using an image instead of text. | Upload or paste an image. |
| Similar Images | Visual Search can find images that are visually similar to the supplied image. | Upload a photograph to find related images. |
| Pages Using Image | Visual Search can locate webpages that contain the supplied image. | Upload an image to find source or reuse pages. |
| Visual Search – Products | Can identify products or visually related items in an image. | Select an object in a photograph. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
TinEye is a reverse-image search engine. You search by uploading, pasting, dragging, or supplying the URL of an image. TinEye looks for matching versions of that image, including copies that have been cropped, resized, edited, or otherwise modified. It does not use ordinary keyword search or image metadata.
| Feature / Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Upload Image | Searches TinEye using an image file from your computer or device. | Upload a JPG or PNG. |
| Paste / Drag Image | Starts a reverse-image search by pasting an image from the clipboard or dragging it onto the TinEye page. | Drag a photograph into TinEye. |
| Image URL | Searches using the web address of an image. | Paste an image URL. |
| Best Match | Sorts results with the closest visual matches first. This is the default. | Sort by: Best Match |
| Most Changed | Shows the most heavily modified versions of the search image first. | Sort by: Most Changed |
| Biggest Image | Shows matching images with the highest resolution first. | Sort by: Biggest Image |
| Newest | Shows images most recently discovered by TinEye first. | Sort by: Newest |
| Oldest | Shows images TinEye discovered earliest first. | Sort by: Oldest |
| Domain Filter | Restricts results to matches found on a particular website. | example.com |
| Collections | Shows results from curated image collections such as Flickr, Wikipedia, or similar sources. | Show collection results. |
| Stock | Shows matches from stock-photography sites where images may be licensed. | Show stock results. |
| Compare | Switches between the search image and a result to reveal cropping, resizing, editing, or other changes. | Compare a matched image with the original. |
| Unavailable Results | Optionally shows indexed matches whose original webpages or image files are no longer available. | Include results not available. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
| Engine | Description | Strengths |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Large video platform covering user-uploaded videos, professional content, Shorts, playlists, channels, movies, and live streams. | Very large catalog; strong creator/channel search; extensive filtering. |
| Limitations: Search ranking is personalized and influenced by relevance, engagement, and other ranking signals. Search Features: Keyword search; filters for content type, upload date, duration, and features such as subtitles/CC. YouTube added a dedicated Shorts filter in 2026. |
||
| Bing Videos | Video search engine that finds videos from many websites and media sources. | Useful for searching across multiple video hosts rather than one platform. |
| Limitations: Features and filters can vary by region and query. Search Features: Keyword and category search; Bing Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT, -, quotes, and parentheses can refine searches. Bing also surfaces popular, recent, and related videos. |
||
| Vimeo | Video hosting and discovery platform with strong coverage of filmmaking, creative work, professional video, and independent productions. | Detailed filtering and sorting; useful for professionally produced and independent video. |
| Limitations: Public Vimeo-wide search is unavailable in some regions. Search Features: Filters include type, category, duration, upload date, resolution, HDR, license, collections, 360 video, live events, and price. Sort by relevance, recent upload, popularity, title, or duration. |
||
| Dailymotion | Video platform covering uploaded videos, playlists, users, live content, and hashtags. | Useful alternative source for news, entertainment, and publisher video. |
| Limitations: Smaller catalog and ecosystem than YouTube. Search Features: Search categories include Videos, Playlists, Users, Live, and Hashtags. Video results can be filtered by duration and upload date and sorted by views or upload date. |
||
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
YouTube
YouTube Help – Advanced Search Filters
YouTube – Google Like a Pro – All Advanced Search Operators Tutorial (Video)
YouTube’s most reliable advanced search tools are its built-in Filters. Some search-box syntax such as quotation marks, minus terms, OR, and hashtags also works, but YouTube does not maintain a comprehensive official operator list. For more exact web-style searching of YouTube pages, Google Search can be used with site:youtube.com.
| Operator / Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Quoted phrases can help emphasize a particular word sequence, but YouTube does not document exact-phrase syntax as a guaranteed search operator. | “climate change documentary” |
| – | Often used to try to exclude an unwanted term, but YouTube does not document it as a guaranteed search operator. | climate -politics |
| OR | Often used to search for alternative terms, but YouTube does not document a comprehensive Boolean search syntax. | climate OR warming |
| #hashtag | Searches for videos using a hashtag included in the title or description. | #climateaction |
| Upload Date | Limits results by when the content was uploaded. | Use Filters → Upload Date |
| Result Type | Limits results to a particular kind of YouTube content. | Use Filters → Type |
| Shorts | Dedicated 2026 Type filter for YouTube Shorts. | Filters → Type → Shorts |
| Duration | Limits video results by length. | Use Filters → Duration |
| Subtitles / CC | Limits results to videos with captions available. | Filters → Subtitles/CC |
| Prioritize | YouTube renamed the former Sort By menu to Prioritize in 2026. | Use Filters → Prioritize |
| Popularity | 2026 replacement for the former View Count sorting option. Popularity considers views along with other relevance signals such as watch time. | Prioritize → Popularity |
| @handle | Can be used to locate a YouTube channel by its handle. | @youtubecreators |
| Google site: | Use Google Search instead of YouTube search to restrict web results to YouTube. | climate documentary site:youtube.com |
| Google before: / after: | Use Google Search to restrict YouTube pages to documents Google dates before or after specified dates. | climate after:2025-01-01 site:youtube.com |
| Google exact phrase + site: | Combines Google’s quoted-phrase search with a YouTube site restriction. | “climate change” site:youtube.com |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Bing Video searches video content from multiple websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, and other sources. Searches can use Bing’s standard Boolean operators and advanced search keywords. Video-specific filters include duration, resolution, source, date, and license.
| Operator / Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Searches for an exact phrase. | “climate summit” |
| AND or & | Requires both terms or phrases. Bing treats ordinary multiple terms as AND by default. | climate AND policy |
| OR or | | Searches for either term or phrase. OR must be uppercase. | climate OR environment |
| NOT or – | Excludes a term or phrase. NOT must be uppercase. | climate NOT politics or climate -politics |
| ( ) | Groups terms when combining Boolean operators. | (climate OR environment) AND policy |
| site: | General Bing search keyword that limits results to a particular website or domain. | climate site:youtube.com |
| inbody: | General Bing search keyword requiring a term in the body text of the indexed webpage. | inbody:climate |
| filetype: | General Bing search keyword restricting results to webpages of a specified file type. It is not a Bing Video format filter. | climate filetype:pdf |
| Duration | Filters video results by length. | Short, Medium, or Long |
| Resolution | Filters videos by picture quality or resolution. | HD or 4K |
| Source | Limits results to a particular video provider or website. | Vimeo |
| Date | Limits video results to a selected time period. | Past week |
| License | Filters videos according to available usage-rights information. | Labeled for reuse |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Vimeo search is primarily filter-based rather than operator-based. Public Vimeo results can be filtered by type, category, duration, upload date, resolution, HDR, license, collections, 360 video, live events, and price. Results can also be sorted by relevance, upload date, popularity, title, or duration. Public Vimeo-wide search is unavailable in some regions.
| Filter / Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Limits results by type of Vimeo content. | Videos, Channels, Groups, or Users |
| Category | Limits results to a Vimeo content category. | Documentary |
| Duration | Filters videos by length. | Select a duration range. |
| Date Uploaded | Limits results according to when the video was uploaded. | Recently uploaded |
| Resolution | Filters by video resolution. | HD or 4K |
| HDR | Limits results according to HDR availability. | HDR videos |
| License | Filters videos by license, including Creative Commons options. | Creative Commons Attribution |
| Vimeo Collections | Filters results by Vimeo collections. | Select a collection. |
| Vimeo 360 | Limits results to 360-degree videos. | 360 video |
| Live Events | Limits results to live-event content. | Live events |
| Price | Filters results according to available pricing options. | Select a price filter. |
| Mature Content | Controls whether mature-rated material is included in results. | Adjust Mature content setting. |
| Sort By | Orders results by relevance, upload date, popularity, title, or duration. | Most Popular or Recently Uploaded |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Dailymotion search is primarily keyword- and filter-based. Search results can be narrowed to Videos, Playlists, Users, Live, or Hashtags. Video results can then be filtered by duration and upload date and sorted by views or upload date. Dailymotion does not document a general advanced operator syntax for its public search.
| Filter / Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Search | Searches Dailymotion using ordinary keywords. | climate documentary |
| Top Results | Default search view combining several types of Dailymotion content in one ranked feed. | Top Results |
| Videos | Limits results to videos. | Videos |
| Playlists | Limits results to playlists. | Playlists |
| Users | Limits results to Dailymotion users or creators. | Users |
| Live | Limits results to live content. | Live |
| Hashtags | Limits results to hashtag feeds and content associated with a hashtag. | #news |
| Duration | Filters video results by a selected duration range. | Select a duration range. |
| Upload Date | Filters videos according to when they were uploaded. | Select an upload period. |
| Sort By | Sorts video results by views or upload date. | Sort by: Views |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
IMDb Help Center – Advanced Search Help
IMDb – Advanced Search
IMDb Advanced Search is primarily form- and filter-based rather than operator-based. It provides separate searches for titles, people, collaborations, and page topics. Selected filters are encoded in the resulting URL. IMDb also documents an exclusion method using ! before a URL parameter value.
| Filter / Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Title Name | Searches for a movie, series, episode, game, podcast, or other title by name. | The Godfather |
| Title Type | Limits results by production type. | Movie, TV Series, Short, TV Episode, Video Game, Podcast Series |
| Release Date | Limits results by a starting and ending date or year. | 1970 to 1979 |
| IMDb Rating | Limits results to an IMDb user-rating range. | 8.0 to 10.0 |
| Number of Votes | Limits results according to how many IMDb ratings a title has received. | 10,000 to 500,000 votes |
| Genre | Includes titles belonging to selected genres. Multiple genres can be combined. | Crime + Drama |
| Exclude Genre | Removes selected genres from the results. | Exclude Documentary |
| Awards & Recognition | Filters by awards, nominations, or IMDb ranking lists. | Oscar-Winning or IMDb Top 250 Movies |
| Page Topics | Requires selected types of information to appear on the IMDb title page. | Plot, Quotes, Soundtracks, Trivia, Locations |
| Search Within Topic | Searches for text within a selected page-topic field. | Plot contains: space |
| Companies | Limits results to titles associated with selected production or distribution companies. | Warner Bros. |
| Instant Watch Options | Limits results according to supported streaming, rental, or purchase availability. | Prime Video |
| Collaboration Search | Finds titles shared by two people, or people who worked on two specified titles. | Tom Hanks + Meg Ryan |
| ! exclusion in URL | IMDb officially supports placing ! before a URL parameter value to exclude that value from Advanced Search results. | languages=!en |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Wikipedia – Searching
Wikipedia – Searching/Features
Wikipedia – Advanced Source Searching
Wikipedia – Search/Advanced Search
Wikipedia uses CirrusSearch for full-text and advanced searching. Ordinary words separated by spaces are all required by default. CirrusSearch also supports exact phrases, exclusions, wildcards, fuzzy and proximity searching, and specialized prefixes for titles, categories, page source, templates, links, namespaces, and related pages. AND and OR should be used carefully because CirrusSearch does not implement conventional Boolean precedence.
| Operator / Prefix | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Space | Requires all entered terms. This is the normal and safest equivalent of AND. | cats dogs |
| AND | Explicitly requires terms on both sides. Usually unnecessary because spaces already require all terms. Avoid mixing AND and OR in complex queries. | cats AND dogs |
| OR | Matches either term when OR is the only logical operator being used. | cats OR dogs |
| NOT, – or ! | Excludes a term. All three forms are supported. | cats -dogs |
| ” “ | Searches an exact phrase and disables normal stemming for that phrase. | “domestic cat” |
| * | Wildcard matching zero or more characters within or at the end of a word. It cannot be the first character. | cat* |
| \? | Wildcard matching exactly one letter or number. The question mark must be escaped with a backslash. | c\?t |
| ~ | Fuzzy search for approximate word matches. | colour~1 |
| “phrase”~N | Proximity search. Allows the words in a quoted phrase to occur within a specified distance. | “climate policy”~5 |
| intitle: | Requires a word or phrase in the page title. | intitle:”domestic cat” |
| insource: | Searches the page’s underlying wikitext rather than only rendered text. | insource:”Felis catus” |
| insource:/regex/ | Advanced regular-expression search of page source. Regex searches can be slow and should usually be combined with another search term. | cat insource:/Felis.*catus/ |
| incategory: | Limits results to pages directly contained in a category. | incategory:Mammals |
| deepcat: | Searches a category and its subcategories. | deepcat:Mammals |
| prefix: | Limits results to page titles beginning with specified characters or words. | prefix:Cat |
| Namespace prefix | Limits searching to a Wikipedia namespace such as Help, User, Talk, Category, or File. | Help:search |
| linksto: | Finds pages containing an internal wiki link to a specified page. | linksto:”Domestic cat” |
| hastemplate: | Finds pages that use a specified template. | hastemplate:”Infobox person” |
| morelike: | Finds pages whose text is similar to one or more specified pages. It cannot normally be combined with other search clauses. | morelike:Cat|Dog |
| morelikethis: | Finds similar pages while allowing additional search filters to be added. | morelikethis:Cat incategory:Mammals |
| creationdate: | Filters pages by the date they were created. Comparison operators can be used. | creationdate:>2024 |
| lasteditdate: | Filters pages according to their most recent edit date. | lasteditdate:>=2025 |
| boost-templates: | Advanced ranking control that increases or decreases the relevance score of pages containing specified templates. | boost-templates:”Template:Infobox|200%” cats |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Grokipedia search is currently much simpler than Wikipedia’s CirrusSearch. The public search is primarily query-based and does not have a documented advanced operator language. Enter a topic, name, or phrase to locate relevant Grokipedia articles. For more precise searching, an external search engine can be used with site:grokipedia.com. Third-party tools accessing Grokipedia’s search data also expose options such as result limits, pagination, relevance sorting, and view-count sorting, but these are not normal search-box operators.
| Search Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Search | Searches Grokipedia articles using ordinary words or a topic name. | artificial intelligence |
| Article Name | Searching a specific subject or proper name can locate the corresponding Grokipedia article when one exists. | Albert Einstein |
| Multiple Terms | Additional descriptive words can make a general search more specific. No first-party Boolean syntax is currently documented. | Roman Empire military |
| Search Results | Search results can include article titles and text snippets related to the query. | machine learning |
| Direct Article URL | Grokipedia article pages use a page-based URL structure. | /page/Artificial_intelligence |
| External site: | Use a web search engine to restrict results to pages indexed from Grokipedia. This is an external search-engine operator, not a Grokipedia operator. | “artificial intelligence” site:grokipedia.com |
| Advanced Operators | No first-party documentation was found for general AND, OR, NOT, wildcard, fuzzy-search, or field-prefix syntax in the normal Grokipedia search box. | Use ordinary search terms instead. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Source – Grok
Advanced search page at x.com/search-advanced – builds queries
Most useful operators (web/app search)
People
from:username— posts by that accountto:username— replies to that account@username— posts that mention the accountlist:123456— posts from members of a public List
Text
"exact phrase"— exact matchword1 OR word2— either term (ORmust be uppercase)-word— exclude a word#hashtagand$TICKER(cashtag)lang:en— language filter
Dates
since:2026-01-01until:2026-09-30- You can combine them for a range.
Engagement
min_faves:100— at least 100 likesmin_retweets:50min_replies:20
Content type
filter:media/filter:images/filter:videosfilter:linksfilter:repliesor-filter:replies(include or exclude replies)filter:verified(or similar verified filters)
Example queries
from:elonmusk grok min_faves:500 since:2026-01-01
"product market fit" min_faves:200 -filter:replies lang:en
to:nasa launch filter:repliesSpaces act as AND. Parentheses work for grouping: (startup OR founder) "looking for".
Notes
- These work in the regular search bar (desktop and mobile) as well as the Advanced search form.
- Location operators (
near:,geocode:, etc.) used to work better; geotagging is much less common now, so they are often unreliable. - The X API has a similar but not identical set of operators (e.g.
min_likes:instead ofmin_faves:). - X Pro (formerly TweetDeck) also supports these operators in search columns.
Reddit search supports Boolean operators, grouping, and field-specific filters for posts. Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT are case-sensitive. Manual filters such as author:, subreddit:, title:, and selftext: can be combined in the same query. Do not put a space after the colon. Multi-word field values should be placed in quotation marks. Reddit also provides separate search categories for Posts, Communities, Comments, Media, and People.
| Operator / Prefix | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Requires all connected terms to appear. Must be uppercase. | cats AND dogs |
| OR | Requires at least one of the connected terms to appear. Must be uppercase. | cats OR dogs |
| NOT | Excludes the following term. Must be uppercase. | cats NOT dogs |
| ( ) | Groups terms and controls how Boolean expressions are evaluated. | hedgehog NOT (sonic OR shadow) |
| ” “ | Use quotation marks around multi-word field values to keep the words together. | title:”kitten gif” |
| author: | Limits results to posts submitted by a specific Reddit user. | author:reddit |
| subreddit: | Limits results to a specific subreddit. | subreddit:cats |
| title: | Searches within post titles. | title:adoption |
| selftext: | Searches within the body text of posts. | selftext:adoption |
| flair: | Searches the post’s link-flair text. | flair:discussion |
| site: | Limits link posts to a particular domain. | site:youtube.com |
| url: | Searches text within the submitted URL. | url:youtube |
| self:true | Limits results to text posts. | self:true |
| self:false | Excludes text posts. | self:false |
| Combined Fields | Multiple field filters and ordinary search terms can be used in the same query. | cats subreddit:pics site:imgur.com |
| Community Search | Searching while inside a subreddit limits results to that community unless you choose to search all of Reddit. | Search while viewing r/cats |
| Comment Search | Reddit can search comments globally and within individual posts. | Select Comments or use the search box within a post. |
| Media Search | Limits results to media content such as images, video, and GIFs. | Select Media |
| Safe Search | Controls whether NSFW results may appear. This is a search setting rather than a typed operator. | Turn Safe Search on or off. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Property names shown here assume an English Windows interface. Windows localizes user-facing AQS property keywords.
Windows – Advanced Query Syntax
Windows uses Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) in File Explorer for more precise searches. These operators work in the File Explorer search box and support Boolean logic, comparisons, and property-specific prefixes. Most AQS syntax is case-insensitive, but Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT must be uppercase.
| Operator/Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Matches an exact phrase. | “quarterly report” |
| Space | Implicit AND; requires both terms. | report sales |
| AND | Explicit AND; requires both expressions. Must be uppercase. | report AND sales |
| OR | Matches either expression. Must be uppercase. | report OR invoice |
| NOT | Excludes the following expression. Must be uppercase. | report NOT draft |
| ( ) | Groups expressions and controls logical precedence. | (report OR invoice) AND sales |
| = | Requires an exact property value. | ext:=.pdf |
| <> or – | Means not equal when used with a property. | kind:<>picture or kind:-picture |
| >, >= | Greater than or greater than or equal to. | size:>1GB or size:>=500MB |
| <, <= | Less than or less than or equal to. | size:<500KB or size:<=1MB |
| .. | Inclusive range for dates, sizes, and other ordered values. | size:1MB..10MB |
| kind: | Filters by broad file category. | kind:docs, kind:music, kind:pics, kind:videos, kind:folders |
| ext: or fileext: | Filters by file extension. | ext:.pdf or fileext:.jpg |
| filename: or file: | Searches the file name specifically. | filename:”annual report” |
| folder:, under:, or path: | Restricts results by folder or path. | folder:Downloads |
| foldername: or in: | Limits the search to a named folder or location. | in:Documents |
| size: | Filters by file size. Current Windows ranges are Tiny: 0–16 KB; Small: 16 KB–1 MB; Medium: 1–128 MB; Large: 128 MB–1 GB; Huge: 1–4 GB; Gigantic: over 4 GB. Numeric comparisons can also be used. | size:huge or size:>5GB |
| date: | Filters using Windows’ general item-date property. Relative dates such as today, yesterday, and last week are supported. | date:today |
| datemodified: or modified: | Filters by modification date. | modified:last week |
| datecreated: | Filters by file creation date. | datecreated:yesterday |
| dateaccessed: | Filters by the last-accessed date. | dateaccessed:today |
| author: or by: | Filters by author metadata. | author:”John Doe” |
| title:, subject:, or about: | Filters by title or subject metadata. | title:”Annual Report” |
| keywords: | Filters by keyword/tag metadata. | keywords:”project alpha” |
| contents: | Searches indexed file contents rather than only names and other properties. Results depend on file type and indexing support. | contents:budget |
| album: | Filters music files by album metadata. | album:”Thriller” |
| artist: | Filters music files by artist metadata. | artist:”Michael Jackson” |
| genre: | Filters music files by genre. | genre:rock |
| track: | Filters music files by track number. | track:1 |
| year: | Filters music files by year metadata. | year:1982 |
| bitrate: | Filters music files by audio bitrate. | bitrate:192 |
| duration: | Filters audio or video by duration. Windows provides Very Short (under 1 min), Short (1–5 min), Medium (5–30 min), Long (30–60 min), and Very Long (over 60 min). | duration:medium |
| cameramake: | Filters photos by camera manufacturer metadata. | cameramake:Canon |
| cameramodel: | Filters photos by camera model metadata. | cameramodel:”Canon EOS” |
| dimensions: | Filters images by stored width × height dimensions. | dimensions:1920×1080 |
| width: | Filters images by width in pixels. | width:>1920 |
| height: | Filters images by height in pixels. | height:>1080 |
| orientation: | Filters pictures by orientation. | orientation:landscape |
| datetaken: | Filters photos by the date stored in their photo metadata. | datetaken:yesterday |
| System.Image.BitDepth: | Advanced property for image bit depth. |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
PowerShell searches files and folders directly rather than using the Windows Search index. Get-ChildItem finds files and folders, Where-Object filters results by properties such as size or date, and Select-String searches text inside files. Commands can be combined with the pipeline (|) to build more specific searches. Select-String uses regular expressions by default.
| Command/Operator | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Get-ChildItem | Lists files and folders in the current location. | Get-ChildItem |
| -Path | Specifies the folder or drive to search. | Get-ChildItem -Path “C:\Files” |
| -File | Returns files only, excluding folders. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -File |
| -Directory | Returns folders only. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Directory |
| -Recurse | Searches the specified folder and all of its subfolders. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -File |
| -Depth | Limits how many levels of subfolders are searched. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -Depth 2 |
| -Filter | Filters names while searching. Usually the most efficient way to search for one filename or extension pattern. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -File -Filter “*.pdf” |
| * | Wildcard matching zero or more characters. | Get-ChildItem -Filter “*report*” |
| ? | Wildcard matching a single character. | Get-ChildItem -Filter “report?.pdf” |
| -Include | Includes one or more filename or extension patterns. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -File -Include *.pdf,*.docx |
| -Exclude | Excludes matching files or folders from the results. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -File -Exclude *.tmp,*.bak |
| -Force | Includes hidden and system items that normally are not displayed. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Force |
| Where-Object | Filters results by file properties such as size, date, or name. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -File | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 100MB } |
| $_ | Represents the current file or folder being evaluated inside a pipeline filter. | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 100MB } |
| .Name | The file or folder name property. | Where-Object { $_.Name -like “*report*” } |
| .Extension | The file extension property. | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq “.pdf” } |
| .Length | The file size in bytes. PowerShell also understands KB, MB, GB, and TB suffixes. | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 500MB } |
| .LastWriteTime | The date and time the file was last modified. | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) } |
| .CreationTime | The file creation date and time. | Where-Object { $_.CreationTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) } |
| -eq | Equal to. | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq “.pdf” } |
| -ne | Not equal to. | Where-Object { $_.Extension -ne “.tmp” } |
| -gt | Greater than. | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 100MB } |
| -ge | Greater than or equal to. | Where-Object { $_.Length -ge 1GB } |
| -lt | Less than. | Where-Object { $_.Length -lt 1MB } |
| -le | Less than or equal to. | Where-Object { $_.Length -le 500KB } |
| -and | Requires both conditions to be true. | Where-Object { $_.Length -ge 1MB -and $_.Length -le 10MB } |
| -or | Requires either condition to be true. | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq “.jpg” -or $_.Extension -eq “.png” } |
| -not | Reverses a condition. | Where-Object { -not $_.PSIsContainer } |
| -like | Matches text using wildcards such as * and ?. | Where-Object { $_.Name -like “*invoice*” } |
| -notlike | Excludes text matching a wildcard pattern. | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike “*draft*” } |
| -match | Matches text using a regular expression. | Where-Object { $_.Name -match “^report\d+\.pdf$” } |
| Select-String | Searches text inside supported text files. Patterns are regular expressions by default. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -Recurse -File -Include *.txt,*.log | Select-String -Pattern “budget” |
| -SimpleMatch | Makes Select-String search for literal text instead of treating the search term as a regular expression. | Select-String -Path “C:\Files\*.txt” -Pattern “total = $500” -SimpleMatch |
| -CaseSensitive | Makes a Select-String text search case-sensitive. | Select-String -Path “C:\Files\*.txt” -Pattern “Budget” -CaseSensitive |
| Sort-Object | Sorts the search results by a property. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -File | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending |
| Select-Object -First | Limits the results to the first specified number of items. | Get-ChildItem “C:\Files” -File | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Mac User Guide – Narrow your search results in Finder on Mac
macOS Spotlight supports Boolean operators, kind filters, and date/metadata prefixes. Searches are case-insensitive for terms but require uppercase for Boolean (AND/OR/NOT). Wildcards work in some contexts (e.g., via Terminal’s mdfind for raw queries). Use Command+Space for Spotlight; add filters like kind: or date:.
| Operator/Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Matches an exact phrase. | “quarterly report” |
| Space | Searches for all entered words. Without quotation marks, the words can appear in any order. | quarterly report |
| AND | Requires both expressions. | report AND sales |
| OR | Matches either expression. | report OR invoice |
| NOT | Excludes the following expression. | report NOT draft |
| – | Excludes the following word; equivalent to AND NOT. | report -draft |
| kind: | Filters by item type. Common values include application, folder, image, movie, music, audio, PDF, email, contact, event, reminder, bookmark, font and presentation. | kind:pdf or kind:image |
| name: | Searches by file or item name. | name:report |
| author: | Searches author metadata. | author:”John Doe” |
| by: | Searches creator or artist metadata where supported. | kind:music by:”Glenn Miller” |
| from: | Searches sender metadata in supported items such as email. | from:john@example.com |
| to: | Searches recipient metadata in supported items such as email. | to:jane@example.com |
| tag: | Filters by Finder tag. | tag:red |
| title: | Searches title metadata. | title:”Annual Report” |
| keyword: | Searches keyword metadata. | keyword:budget |
| contains: | Searches indexed contents for the specified text. | contains:budget |
| date: | Filters using an item’s date metadata. | date:today |
| Date range | Searches between two dates using a hyphen. | date:1/1/2026-1/31/2026 |
| created: | Filters by creation date. | created:yesterday |
| modified: | Filters by modification date. | modified:”this week” |
| >, >=, <, <= | Compares supported metadata values such as dates. | modified:<=9/1/2026 |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol
Finder and Spotlight support Boolean operators, file-kind filters, metadata keywords, and date searches. Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT are uppercase. Keywords such as kind:, name:, author:, tag:, title:, and contains: can narrow results. Finder also supports date comparisons and date ranges.
| Operator/Property | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ” “ | Matches an exact phrase. | “quarterly report” |
| Space | Searches for all entered words. Without quotation marks, the words can appear in any order. | quarterly report |
| AND | Requires both expressions. | report AND sales |
| OR | Matches either expression. | report OR invoice |
| NOT | Excludes the following expression. | report NOT draft |
| – | Excludes the following word; equivalent to AND NOT. | report -draft |
| kind: | Filters by item type. Common values include application, folder, image, movie, music, audio, PDF, email, contact, event, reminder, bookmark, font and presentation. | kind:pdf or kind:image |
| name: | Searches by file or item name. | name:report |
| author: | Searches author metadata. | author:”John Doe” |
| by: | Searches creator or artist metadata where supported. | kind:music by:”Glenn Miller” |
| from: | Searches sender metadata in supported items such as email. | from:john@example.com |
| to: | Searches recipient metadata in supported items such as email. | to:jane@example.com |
| tag: | Filters by Finder tag. | tag:red |
| title: | Searches title metadata. | title:”Annual Report” |
| keyword: | Searches keyword metadata. | keyword:budget |
| contains: | Searches indexed contents for the specified text. | contains:budget |
| date: | Filters using an item’s date metadata. | date:today |
| Date range | Searches between two dates using a hyphen. | date:1/1/2026-1/31/2026 |
| created: | Filters by creation date. | created:yesterday |
| modified: | Filters by modification date. | modified:”this week” |
| >, >=, <, <= | Compares supported metadata values such as dates. | modified:<=9/1/2026 |
| Command/Operator | Description | Example |
| mdfind | Searches the Mac’s Spotlight metadata index from Terminal. | mdfind ‘budget’ |
| -name | Searches file names only. | mdfind -name report |
| -onlyin | Limits the search to a particular folder. | mdfind -onlyin “$HOME/Documents” ‘budget’ |
| -count | Returns the number of matches instead of listing them. | mdfind -count -interpret ‘kind:pdf’ |
| -interpret | Interprets a query like text entered into Spotlight. Useful for familiar searches such as kind:pdf. | mdfind -interpret ‘kind:pdf report’ |
| -live | Keeps the search running and updates results as matching files change. | mdfind -live ‘budget’ |
| mdls | Displays Spotlight metadata for a specific file. Useful for seeing which kMDItem properties a file contains. | mdls “/path/to/file.pdf” |
| == | Equal to. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSName == “Report.pdf”‘ |
| != | Not equal to. | mdfind ‘kMDItemContentType != “public.folder”‘ |
| >, >= | Greater than or greater than or equal to. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSSize >= 1048576’ |
| <, <= | Less than or less than or equal to. | mdfind ‘kMDItemPixelWidth <= 1920’ |
| * | Wildcard matching multiple characters inside a string comparison. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSName ==[c] “report*”‘ |
| ? | Wildcard matching one character inside a string comparison. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSName ==[c] “rep?rt.pdf”‘ |
| [c] | Makes a string comparison case-insensitive. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSName ==[c] “report.pdf”‘ |
| [d] | Makes a string comparison ignore diacritical marks. | mdfind ‘kMDItemAuthors ==[d] “Frederic”‘ |
| [cd] | Makes a comparison ignore both case and diacritical marks. | mdfind ‘kMDItemAuthors ==[cd] “Frederic”‘ |
| && | AND; both conditions must match. | mdfind ‘kMDItemPixelWidth > 1920 && kMDItemPixelHeight > 1080’ |
| || | OR; either condition can match. | mdfind ‘kMDItemContentType == “public.audio” || kMDItemContentType == “public.video”‘ |
| ( ) | Groups conditions in complex queries. | mdfind ‘(kMDItemContentType == “public.audio” || kMDItemContentType == “public.video”) && kMDItemDurationSeconds > 300’ |
| $time.today | Represents today’s date in a metadata query. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSContentChangeDate >= $time.today’ |
| $time.today(-7) | Represents the date seven days ago. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSContentChangeDate >= $time.today(-7)’ |
| $time.this_week | Represents the current week. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSCreationDate == $time.this_week’ |
| kMDItemFSName | File name. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSName ==[c] “report*”‘ |
| kMDItemFSSize | File size in bytes. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSSize > 104857600’ |
| kMDItemFSCreationDate | File creation date. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSCreationDate == $time.this_week’ |
| kMDItemFSContentChangeDate | Date the file’s contents were last changed. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFSContentChangeDate >= $time.today(-7)’ |
| kMDItemTextContent | Indexed text contained inside a document. | mdfind ‘kMDItemTextContent ==[c] “*budget*”‘ |
| kMDItemAuthors | Author metadata. | mdfind ‘kMDItemAuthors ==[c] “*John Doe*”‘ |
| kMDItemContentType | Spotlight content type, such as audio, video or PDF. | mdfind ‘kMDItemContentType == “public.audio”‘ |
| kMDItemPixelWidth | Image or video width in pixels. | mdfind ‘kMDItemPixelWidth > 1920’ |
| kMDItemPixelHeight | Image or video height in pixels. | mdfind ‘kMDItemPixelHeight > 1080’ |
| kMDItemDurationSeconds | Audio or video duration in seconds. | mdfind ‘kMDItemDurationSeconds > 300’ |
| kMDItemAudioBitRate | Audio bitrate metadata. | mdfind ‘kMDItemAudioBitRate > 128000’ |
| kMDItemColorSpace | Image color-space metadata. | mdfind ‘kMDItemColorSpace == “RGB”‘ |
| kMDItemFocalLength | Camera focal length in millimeters. | mdfind ‘kMDItemFocalLength == 50’ |
| kMDItemISOSpeed | Camera ISO speed. | mdfind ‘kMDItemISOSpeed > 400’ |
Developed with GPT-5.6 Sol