When you use a search engine like Bing or Google, you can augment your query with special operators that can refine search results or perform a specific function. For example, if you search the term “cowboys,” you’ll receive results for everything from the football team to Western films. By using search engine operators, you can adjust your search to only receive results about a specific topic or from a certain site. Excluding football and searching specifically for “cowboys” can cut down on hundreds of millions of results, allowing you to find relevant information faster and easier.
What are Search Engine Operators?
Essentially, search engine operators are simple commands that you type alongside a term in the search bar. While the exact format for this varies, most are pretty simple to use and can dramatically improve your search results. This is because search engines categorize and sort all sorts of data for search terms and websites. Search engines index everything from a news story’s source to a document’s file type and you can search for them using operators. While Google, Bing, and other search providers are different search engines, some of the most common operators work with almost any search engine, especially Google and Bing.
Advanced Search Engine Commands
| Purpose | Command Example | Result |
| term1 AND term2 | OneLaunch AND browser | Searches for each word on every page. Most search engines do this by default. |
| term1 OR term2 | car OR truck | Searches for one term or the other on each page. |
| Exact Match | “match this” | Searches specifically for the phrase in quotes. |
| Exclude This | car -truck | Searches for car while excluding any result that includes truck. |
| From This Source | source:nytimes cat story | Searches News pages for a cat story from the New York Times. You can place terms on either side of the operator. |
| Define | Define:phantasmagoria | Searches for a definition of phantasmagoria |
| This Site | Site:onelaunch.com features | Searches only the chosen site for the additional search terms. In this case, it searches the OneLaunch site for features. You can place terms on either side of the operator. |
| Wildcard | Steve * apple | Searches for each word but allows additional, relevant words to replace the asterisk. |
| File Type | file type: png cat ext: png cat | Finds results of the chosen file type. In this case, .png images of cats. You can place terms on either side of the operator. |
| Weather | Weather: 11212 weather: New York City | Retrieves the weather of the chosen zip code or city. |
| Movies | movie: Cats | Retrieves only results for the film you choose. |
| Map | Map: 11212 map: New York City | Retrieves a map of the chosen zip code or area. |
| Stocks | stocks: f | Retrieves the status of the chosen stock, using New York Stock Exchange symbols. |
| Equations | 73 – 40103+3942(40+60) | Solves the equation entered into the search bar. |
| Percentages | 32% of 288 | Calculates percentages. |
| Unit Conversion | 112 celsius in fahrenheit 20 inches in cm | Performs unit conversion, also works for currencies, distance, weight, and much more |
Conclusion
If you’re having difficulty getting the search results you want or if you just want to improve your overall searching experience, these operators and tools can help. Don’t forget, you can use search engine operators in the OneLaunch search bar. Refine your searches and improve your results with an innovative browser and search engine operators.
Check out a YouTube Video on this topic from the OneLaunch Team: How to search the web more efficiently with OneLaunch
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