Phenquestions
If you have been to main search page of Startpage recently, you may have noticed that the link to the site's advanced search feature is not there anymore. Users who have bookmarked the advanced search page can access it, as the page has not been removed at the time. It appears however, that it is only a matter of time before the page is removed from the service.
Advanced Search enables users to narrow down searches using an easy to use form. It supports additional word filters, e.g. to search for an exact phrase, include only hits that have title or URL matches, limit searches to specific domains, or by file type and date.
A support page confirms the plans to remove the advanced search page from the site. We contacted Startpage for clarification, as the support page stated that the advanced search page was removed already, which was not true at the time and is not at the time of writing.
We wanted to know why the link was removed, and whether users could type the operators used on the advanced search page. A Startpage representative told us that the service's advanced search page was not used by many users. Low usage led to the decision to remove the page to focus on other areas that are more popular.
Startpage supports all search operators of the advanced search page; these may be used directly when users type search queries.
Here is the overview of supported advanced options:
- Exact Phrase, e.g. "Windows 10".
- Find pages that with the phrase Windows 10.
- At Least one Word, e.g. Windows OR Mac OR Linux.
- Find pages that mention at least one of the words.
- Exclude words, e.g. Windows 10 -Microsoft.
- Finds pages about Windows 10 that don't mention Microsoft.
- Must be in title, e.g. intitle:Microsoft Windows 10.
- Finds pages about Windows 10 with "Microsoft" in the title.
- Must be in URL, e.g. inurl:Microsoft Windows 10.
- Finds pages that have microsoft in the url and are about Windows 10.
- Search a specific site, e.g. site:ghacks.net Windows 10.
- Search ghacks.net for Windows 10 content.
- Search a specific domain type, .e.g. site:.net Windows 10.
- search only .net domains for the term Windows 10.
- Search by file type, e.g. filetype:pdf Windows 10.
- Find PDF documents about Windows 10.
- Return results before a specific date, .e.g. Windows 10 before:2017.
- Returns pages about Windows 10 published before 2017.
- Return results after a specific date, e.g. Windows 10 after:2017-10-27
- Returns pages about Windows 10 published after October 27th, 2017.
Search operators may be combined, e.g. to run exact searches on specific sites, use before and after operators to narrow down publication dates, or search for multiple file types.
Now You: do you use advanced parameters when you search?
