Multiple search terms are processed as an AND operation by default. Phrase matches are ranked higher
Boolean Searching:
Google uses an automatic Boolean AND between terms and has slowly been moving towards more Boolean support; however, it does not yet support the AND operator, NOT operator, or full Boolean searching with the ability to nest operators. In Feb. 1999, Google added the - symbol to perform a NOT function. In Oct. 2000, they added the ability to use an OR (which must be in upper case) to do some Boolean OR operations. See the Boolean Searching on Google page for more details on how to get Google to do certain kinds of Boolean searches.
The + used to be able to be used to require a term, but since the default operation was AND, the + was never really needed and for a while caused the following message to appear:
Google always searches for pages containing all the words in your query, so you do not need to use + in front of words.
However, the + can be used for forcing a search on stop words.
Proximity Searching:
In Feb. 1999, Google added phrase searching designated in the usual manner by enclosing the phrase in "double quotes." Google also detects phrase matches even when the quotes are not used and usually ranks phrase matches higher. No other proximity searching is available.
Truncation:
No truncation is available nor is there any automatic plural searching, word stemming, or other related features. However, within phrases, there is a trick which can be used for a wildcard word. Use an asterisk * within a phrase search to match any word in that position. So, for example, to find "a little neglect may breed mischief" when you are not sure of the second to last word, search "a little neglect may * mischief". This is the only way Google supports a wildcard symbol.
Case Sensitivity:
Google has no case sensitive searching. Using either lower or upper case results in the same hits.
Field Searching:
Google offers several field searches connected with entering URLs. In the December 2000 revision of its advanced search form, it add several title and URL field searches. Note that most field searching cannot be combined with other query words. In others words, a search entered such as uniqueword link:name.com will only be processed as if only the field search was present as in link:name.com. The uniqueword is ignored. One exception is the site: limit which cannot be used alone and must have another search term. The newest exceptions are the intitle: and inurl: fields which can be combined with other search terms.
Related links:
intitle: Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. Can be combined with other search terms. intitle:search engines.
inurl: Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). Can be combined with other search terms. inurl:searchenginewatch.
allintitle: Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. allintitle:search engines.
link: Finds pages which contain hypertext links to the exact specified URL.
link:notess.com/search finds pages with links to this site.
allinurl: Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). allinurl:searchenginewatch.
site: Finds pages from the designated Web site. Paths and file names cannot be included. An additional search term must be used. Try a term from the domain name for the most comprehensive results. notess site:notess.com finds how many pages Google has index or listed. As of April 2000, this was an undocumented search feature.
allinanchor: Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the links to the page
related: Invokes GoogleScout to find other pages similar in linkage patterns to the given URL and at a similar hierarchical level. The URL must be exact. In other works related:notess.com and related:www.notess.com find different results.
flink: Used to finds pages linked from the given URL. No longer working as of Oct. 30, 1999. flink:notess.com/search
Related links:
