Google Help : Advanced Search 

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Advanced Search Made Easy 

Once you know the basics of Google search, you might want to try Advanced 
Search, which offers numerous options for making your searches more 
precise and getting more useful results. 

You can reach this page by clicking (no surprise) the "Advanced Search" 
link on the Google home page. 

Here's what the Advanced Search page looks like:

You can do a lot more with Google search than just typing in search terms. 
With Advanced Search, you can search only for pages: 
that contain ALL the search terms you type in 
that contain the exact phrase you type in 
that contain at least one of the words you type in 
that do NOT contain any of the words you type in 
written in a certain language 
created in a certain file format 
that have been updated within a certain period of time 
that contain numbers within a certain range 
within a certain domain, or website 
that don't contain "adult" material 

Advanced search "operators" 

You can also improve your searches by adding "operators" to your search terms
in the Google search box, or selecting them from the Advanced Search page. 

Advanced search operators include: 
Include Search 
Synonym Search 
OR Search 
Domain Search 
Numrange Search 
Other Advanced Search Features 
Complete list of advanced operators
Print-and-save Google Cheat Sheet 

"+" search 
Google ignores common words and characters such as where, the, how, and 
other digits and letters which slow down your search without improving the 
results. We'll indicate if a word has been excluded by displaying details 
on the results page below the search box. 

If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can 
include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. (Be sure to include a 
space before the "+" sign.) 

For example, here's how to ensure that Google includes the "I" in a search 
for Star Wars, Episode I: "Star Wars" Episode+I

Synonym search 

If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its 
synonyms, place the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of your search 
term. 

For example, here's how to search for food facts and nutrition and cooking 
information: ~food facts

"OR" search 

To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR 
between the terms. 

Domain search 

You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering 
the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a 
colon followed by the domain name. 
For example, here's how you'd find admission information on
the Stanford University site: 

Numrange search 

Feel like a number? Numrange searches for results containing numbers in a 
given range. Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no 
spaces, into the search box along with your search terms. You can use 
Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates ( Willie Mays 1950..1960) 
to weights ( 5000..10000 kg truck). But be sure to specify a unit of 
measurement or some other indicator of what the number range represents. 

For example, here's how you'd search for a DVD player that costs between 
$250 and $300: 

Other advanced search features

Google Local: Find products and services in a specific U.S. town or zip code. 

Language: specify in which language you'd like your results. 

Technology Search: find information related to Apple Macintosh, BSD 
Unix, Linux or Microsoft. 

Date: restrict your results to the past three, six, or twelve month 
periods. 

Occurrences: specify where your search terms occur on the page - 
anywhere on the page, in the title, or in the url. 

Domains: search only a specific website, or exclude that site from your 
search. 

SafeSearch: Eliminates adult sites from search results.

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