Search Like a Pro

Design a Great Search with Advanced Syntax

You can make your search even more effective by using advanced syntax. Here are examples

All of the terms:

+UFO +abduction
or,
UFO and abduction

Place a plus (+) before any word that must be included. Alternatively, place the word AND between two words or phrases that must be included. Ixquick will only return pages that contain all those words.

If some words are mandatory but others are optional, place the + before only the mandatory words (for example, green +jello +pudding if you are less concerned about the color but are aching for a tasty jello pudding).

Omit a term:

dinosaur -barney

Place a minus (-) before any word that must not be present. Alternatively, place the words NOT, AND NOT or ANDNOT before that word.

For example, dinosaur -barney if you are looking for pages on dinosaurs but don't want to find Barney the Dinosaur.

Phrase:

"south park"

Place a phrase in quotes if all the words need to appear together as a phrase, and not scattered about the page. For example, a search for "south park" is more likely to find websites devoted to the violent television show South Park and less likely to find pages about parks located in the south of France.

Parentheses:

adopt and (beagle or terrier)

Construct complex queries by mixing ands, ors and nots within parentheses. A search for adopt and (beagle or terrier) would find pages with the words adopt and beagle, or adopt and terrier, or possibly all three words.

Fields:

Specify where certain information must appear with fields. Currently supported fields include:

+title:"Dan Quayle" +mensa

title: page title must contain this text

+domain:uk +beatles

domain: page must be located at a .com or .gov or .edu or .uk (etc.) computer

host:nytimes.com
or,
site:nytimes.com

host: page must be located on this specified computer or on more specific computers (e.g. host:nytimes.com will retrieve pages on nytimes.com and on www.nytimes.com)

url:bigman

url: find pages with specified text anywhere within the url, e.g. url:uk will find http://abc.com/pics/uk.html as well as http://www.uk/

link:nytimes

link: page must contain a hyperlink for which at least one of the words in the destination address begins with specified text.