How to Use Quotation Marks to Find Exact Phrases Online
How to Use Quotation Marks to Find Exact Phrases Online GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Internet, Networking, & Security > Around the Web 129 129 people found this article helpful
John Joseph Smith The challenge here is that the search engine will show you John names but also Joseph and Smith names, and probably even other names that include those as last names. You might find hundreds of millions of results; far from what you really want. The quick solution for much better results (and hundreds of millions fewer web pages to look through) would be to enter the following to ensure that all results include all three parts of the name, back to back: "John Joseph Smith"
"Los Angeles 1991" This search is now almost completely saturated with results about a 2015 movie called Los Angeles 1991. The reason for this is clear: the quotation marks demanded that all results include all three items in that order.
"nobel prize winners" 1965..1985
"nobel prize winners" -technology -site:wikipedia.org How to Search a Specific Domain in Google
allintitle:"nobel prize winners" It also works for finding the phrase in the URL of the results:
allinurl:"nobel prize winners"
"nobel prize winners" filetype:pdf
Quotation Marks on Search Engines: How to Use Them
Why and how search quotes help you find better results
By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on July 7, 2022 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Around the Web Browsers Cloud Services Error Messages Family Tech Home Networking 5G Antivirus Around the WebWhat to Know
Basic: Put quotations around full names of people/places (ex. "John Joseph Smith" or "Los Angeles 1991").Advanced: Include specific dates (ex. "nobel prize winners" 1965..1985). Or: Exclude results with minus sign (ex. "nobel prize winners" -technology -site:wikipedia.org) This article explains how to make use of quotation marks for search engines queries.Search Names With Quotes
One of the most useful reasons is when you're looking for a name. For example, you might type the following:John Joseph Smith The challenge here is that the search engine will show you John names but also Joseph and Smith names, and probably even other names that include those as last names. You might find hundreds of millions of results; far from what you really want. The quick solution for much better results (and hundreds of millions fewer web pages to look through) would be to enter the following to ensure that all results include all three parts of the name, back to back: "John Joseph Smith"
Search Locations With Quotes
Using quotation marks around a location is important if you're dealing with an obscure place or if you're adding other items to the search. Here's a simple example: Los Angeles 1991 This search brings up several results on Los Angeles riots of 1992. It might seem strange for these results to populate from a search about 1991, but it happens because some of the content includes the date 1991 even if the primary topic is over an event from a year later. However, change the search slightly by adding quotes around all of it, and the results are way different."Los Angeles 1991" This search is now almost completely saturated with results about a 2015 movie called Los Angeles 1991. The reason for this is clear: the quotation marks demanded that all results include all three items in that order.
Advanced Searching With Quotation Marks
Searching for exact phrases is helpful, but there's a lot more you can do along with a quoted search to get even better results. How to Use Advanced Google Search CommandsLook for Results With Specific Dates
Use quotation marks like you normally would, but then also add dates to limit the results to content that mentions those years only."nobel prize winners" 1965..1985
Exclude Certain Items From the Results
If you don't like the results you're seeing, use the minus sign to tell the search engine that you're specifically not interested in seeing those items in the results. This strategy works for words, dates, other phrases, and even entire domain names."nobel prize winners" -technology -site:wikipedia.org How to Search a Specific Domain in Google
Locate the Results Somewhere Specific
Some search engines, such as Google, let you specify where to look for the phrase that you surrounded in quotation marks. For example, to show only the pages that include your items in the title:allintitle:"nobel prize winners" It also works for finding the phrase in the URL of the results:
allinurl:"nobel prize winners"
Use Quotation Marks to Find Files
One last interesting search combination that we'll discuss is using quotation marks to locate files. You can find all kinds of file types through Google, specifically. This example shows how to search for a phrase with quotation marks while also limiting all the results to PDF files only."nobel prize winners" filetype:pdf