Operators are short commands you type into the search box to get more precise results. MevaSearch supports the same ones as other big search engines, so if you already know them, they work here too.
The operators you will probably use most often.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| "…" | Finds this exact phrase, with the words in this order. | "climate change solutions" |
| -word | Leaves out results that contain this word, site or file type. | javascript -jquery |
| +word | Makes sure this word appears in every result. Handy for words that are usually skipped. | +react hooks |
| site: | Shows results from one website only. | site:github.com rust tutorials |
| -site: | Hides results from this website. | jaguar -site:reddit.com |
| filetype: | Shows only files of this type, like PDF. | filetype:pdf machine learning |
| ext: | Works just like filetype: and filters by file extension. | manual ext:pdf |
Choose whether a word has to be in the page title, in the text, or in either one.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| intitle: | The word must be in the page title. | seo conference intitle:2025 |
| inbody: | The word or phrase must be in the text of the page. | nvidia 1080 ti inbody:"founders edition" |
| inpage: | The word must be in the title or the text of the page. | travel requirements inpage:australia |
Get results in a certain language or from a certain country, whatever your region setting is.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| lang: | Shows pages in this language. Use a two-letter language code, for example en, pl or de. |
recipes lang:fr |
| loc: | Shows pages from this country. Use a two-letter country code, for example gb, ca or pl. |
niagara falls loc:ca |
lang: and loc: take priority over the region in your settings, but only for that one search.
Use these to join several conditions in one search.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Every condition has to match. | visa loc:gb AND lang:en |
| OR | At least one of the conditions has to match. | inpage:australia OR inpage:"new zealand" |
Write AND and OR in capital letters. In lowercase they are treated as normal words.
You can mix operators freely. A good approach is to start broad with site: or loc: and then narrow things down with intitle: or inbody:.
climate change filetype:pdf site:edu intitle:2024
Climate change papers in PDF format from university websites, with 2024 in the title.
AI startup -google -microsoft -amazon -meta
Results about AI startups without Google, Microsoft, Amazon or Meta.
recettes cuisine loc:ca lang:fr
French recipes from Canadian websites.
site:microsoft.com filetype:pdf typescript guide
TypeScript guides from microsoft.com, PDF files only.
"remote work" -site:linkedin.com
Pages with the exact phrase “remote work”, but nothing from LinkedIn.
visa loc:gb AND lang:en
Visa information from UK websites, in English.
A few tips so your operators work the way you expect.
| Tip | Details |
|---|---|
| No space after the colon | Type site:example.com, not site: example.com. With a space, the operator is read as a normal word. |
| Put operators anywhere | They work at the start, in the middle or at the end of your search. |
| AND and OR in capitals | Lowercase and and or are treated as normal words. |
| Don’t overdo it | Using a lot of operators of the same kind, like several intitle:, can leave you with no results at all. |
| Maximum length | A search can be up to 500 characters long, operators included. |
Type a search with an operator and see the results.