How to Use Advanced Search
Description
This article explains how to use Advanced Search to get more specific and relevant search results.
Resolution
Advanced Web Search helps you find sites that match very specific criteria. The search options you choose apply only to the current search.
To use advanced search options, click Options to the left of the Search box and select Advanced Search. Choose as many of the Advanced Search options as you like. Keep in mind that the more restrictions you set on your search, the fewer results are returned.
Show Results With...
For more accurate results, these text boxes give Yahoo! Search specific instructions about the words you enter. Many of these Advanced Search options can also be activated by typing Yahoo! Shortcut symbols into the basic search box.
- all of these words: Includes all of the words you typed in the search box. This is similar to inserting AND between words or the symbol + before a word.
- at least one of these words: Searches for results that match either one or more of the words. This is similar to inserting OR between the words.
- the exact phrase: Searches for the words in exactly the order you enter them. This is similar to putting quotes (" ") around a set of words.
- none of these words: Excludes words from your search. This is similar to inserting NOT between the words or the symbol - before a word.
Updated
Limit your results to sites that have been updated within the past 3, 6, or 12 months.
Site/Domain
Restrict your search to sites with a specific domain suffix, such as .com, .edu, or .gov. For example, if you'd like to search only websites of non-commercial organizations, click the radio button and select .org from the pull-down menu.
To specify more than one domain, or one not listed in the drop-down menu, click the upper radio button and type the domains into the text field, separated by commas.
You can also use this field to search within a particular website domain, such as yahoo.com.
File Format
You can choose to restrict your search to a specific type of file. The default settings will return results which include all file-types. Currently supported formats are:
- .htm, .html—Standard HTML
- .pdf—Adobe PDF
- .xls—Microsoft Excel
- .ppt—Microsoft PowerPoint
- .doc—Microsoft Word
- .xml, .rdf, .rss—RSS or XML feeds
- .txt—Plain Text Format
SafeSearch Filter
You can choose to have explicit, adult-oriented content filtered out of your search results. We'll use information gathered from the Yahoo! Directory and our technology partners to block a large amount of explicit material. Please understand that we cannot guarantee that all explicit content will be removed.
If you'd like to keep this filter in place for all your web searches, you can select this option in your Yahoo! Search preferences. The link to Yahoo! Search preferences is to the right of the search box on the Advanced Search page and on your Yahoo! Search results page.
Country
Yahoo! normally searches websites from all over the world. You can use this setting to search only sites from a particular country.
Languages
Your results might include sites written in English, Japanese, Spanish, or other languages. To limit your search to certain languages, select them here.
You can also save Language settings for your web search in your Yahoo! Search preferences.
Number of Results
Yahoo! Search normally shows 10 web results per page. You can choose to see a different number of results per page, between 10 and 100. You can also set this in your Yahoo! Search preferences.
When you are done selecting options from the Advanced Search page, click Yahoo! Search to see your results. The options you selected will be repeated near the search box at the top of the Yahoo! Search results page.