Boolean operators: Smart searching in Google and other search engines

What are Boolean operators?

Boolean operators are a versatile and valuable tool for anyone using search engines to look for in­for­ma­tion online. They are math­e­mat­i­cal operators used with a special syntax and can be used to expand or restrict search op­er­a­tions or pro­gram­ming sequences, or to apply certain con­di­tions. This guide lists the most useful Boolean operators, with examples to show how they can be used.

The three basic ex­pres­sions of Boolean algebra, as es­tab­lished by English math­e­mati­cian George Boole, are AND, OR, and NOT. These operators are used in all common pro­gram­ming languages, primarily to return results based on whether specified con­di­tions are “true” or “false”.

The operators can be expressed in symbols as well as in words. These symbols are also known as “logical operators” and are mainly used in pro­gram­ming languages. For example:

Placing the AND operator between two con­di­tions means that both con­di­tions must be met in order for the result to be “true”.

With the OR operator, only one condition has to be met for the result to be “true”.

When NOT is used, all the con­di­tions except the excluded ones must be true.

Search engines like Google use these Boolean operators as follows:

AND: A space between two terms is in­ter­pret­ed as “AND”.

OR: Both the word “OR” and the pipe symbol ( | ) act as the OR operator. The Windows keyboard shortcut for the pipe symbol is ALT + [0] [1] [2] [4] (on the number pad). In MacOS it is [ALT] + [7].

NOT: Putting a minus sign before a word (with no space) excludes the word from the search. Be careful not to ac­ci­den­tal­ly type a dash instead of the minus sign, as this will give com­plete­ly different search results.

& or && mean AND
| or || mean OR
! or ~ mean NOT

Helpful Boolean operators for Google searches

AND - Links con­di­tions together; the results must match all the specified words/phrases

OR - Links con­di­tions together; the results must match one of the specified words or phrases

NOT - Excludes terms from the search results

AROUND(X): - A proximity condition; finds terms within X words of each other

IN: - Performs quick con­ver­sions between different units/cur­ren­cies, etc.

define: - Returns a de­f­i­n­i­tion of the specified search term

weather: - Displays a detailed weather forecast for the desired des­ti­na­tion

Basic symbol boolean operators

Basic symbol boolean operators can serve the same functions as the core boolean operators, or complement them to further refine the results that Google serves up in the SERP.

Here’s a list of some of the most common and useful symbol boolean operators:

Pipe (|) -

The pipe operator serves the same function as “OR”, and can be used in searches such as desktop|mobile.

Brackets ( ) -

Brackets or parentheses can be placed around text strings or operators to separate then from the rest of the search and control the order in which the search engine receives each part of the query, similar to the way that parentheses work in a mathematical function.

Example: (ahref OR moz) domain authority

Minus (-) -

By placing a minus sign in front of any term or boolean operator, you can exclude that part of the query from the SERPs.

Asterisk (*) -

The asterisk is known as a wild card operator, which will match this part of the query to any other word, usually with a contextual relationship with the rest of the query.

Example: if you were to search notion * clickup, the results are likely to fill in the asterisk with the word “and”. Expect to see posts appearing in the SERP covering topics such as ‘Notion vs. ClickUp’ and ‘How to integrate ClickUp with Notion’.