What Are Advanced Search Options?

Advanced search options are filters offered by most search engines. They narrow the scope of a search query to eliminate irrelevant information to help you find the exact content you're looking for.

These filters aren't limited to websites like Google. Any website with a search tool can incorporate additional search choices, including people search engines, music and video streaming sites, email programs and websites, social media platforms, and blogs.

Common Advanced Search Option Filters

Web search engines like Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Bing all have tabs you can select after performing a search that limits the results to things like web pages, videos, images, map directions, news, etc. Advanced search options take it further by letting you decide which words shouldn't appear in the results, which websites to search, the language of the pages, and more.

Here's a list of those kinds of options commonly found on web search tools:

• Language: Specify which language you'd like results to come back in.
• Region: Specify which geographical region searches should focus on.
• Last updated: Good for returning recently updated content, but can be used to find content published between specific dates.
• Site or domain: Limit searches to a single website, web page, or top-level domain (e.g., EDU or GOV).
• URL: Show only websites where your search query appears in the URL.
• Safe search: Filter for language and explicit images, although it's not always reliable for avoiding dangerous websites.
• Reading level: Determine the reading level you'd like the results to come back in.
• File type: Search for a specific file format such as Microsoft Word documents or PDFs. For example, you can use Google to find files online.
• Usage rights: Find pages that you have permission to use.
• Specific phrases: Use quotation marks to return results where all of those words are side by side.
• Maps: Displays businesses or locations related to your search.
• Shopping: Displays items related to your search entry that can be purchased.
• News: Displays newsworthy articles related to the search term.

Some search engines include more options for images, videos, news, and other content.

• Color: Force all images in the results to have an overwhelming color that matches the one you choose.
• Size: Find high-resolution images or small ones. Some search engines include an advanced image search that shows pictures that match the exact size you choose.
• Type: Find GIFs, portraits, clip art, line drawings, or only pictures that include a face.
• Duration: Locate short or long videos, usually designated by time, such as 0–4 minutes or more than 20 minutes.
• Quality: Filter the results to show only high-quality videos. Some let you pick the exact video resolution, such as 1080p.
• Feature: Results include the feature you selected, such as subtitles, location information, and live content.
• Source: Show video results from a specific site only.
• Time: When looking for books, you might be given the option to pick which century it was created in.

Using Advanced Search Options

Individual search engines use different algorithms and operators, so an advanced search option from one site probably won't work on another. Plus, how to get to a website's advanced search tools isn't always obvious.

Google

See our Google Search Commands article for a list of advanced search operators for Google. You can access advanced search at google.com/advanced_search.

Bing

Bing is another example. There are lots of Bing search tips that involve IP addresses, RSS feeds, and more.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo's submenu, below the primary tabs, is how you affect the search results. For example, choosing Videos lets you filter the results by date uploaded, resolution, and duration. Picking a different location shows region-relevant results.

Yahoo

Yahoo has a handy set of options that include defining the video source, if you're researching videos. It lets you pick from websites like MTV, MSN, CNN, and YouTube, as well as resolutions as high as 1080p or higher.

YouTube

For YouTube, the Filters option below the search bar (visible after you perform the search) is how you apply advanced search options when looking for videos. It includes parameters for when it was uploaded, the type (playlist, movie, channel, etc.), features, and duration.

Twitter

Twitter's advanced search tool lets you search by hashtag, phrase, language, account, number of tweets, date, and more.

Email

Email programs and web apps often provide search options to help you sift through your hundreds or thousands of emails. These could include attachment size, whether an attachment is present, words provided in the subject line or body, date the email was sent or received, the folder the message is stored in, the address it was sent to or received from, or the size of the email.

Learn how to use search operators in Gmail for more information, or how to use Outlook.com search operators. Similar methods are available from most other email providers.