Verbatim Search on Google

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Verbatim means "exactly as written" or said. By default, Google may search for synonyms or even ignore some words from your query, but it's possible to search verbatim on Google, that is, to search for exactly what you typed in two different ways: you can surround words with double quotes or you can use the verbatim mode that's accessible in the search tools.

In this article, we'll see how this verbatim mode works. Take a look at The Double Quotes Operator for how using double quotes work.

The verbatim mode is accessible through the "Tools" button in the search results page, so the easiest way to get to it is to just search for something first, then click on the "Tools" button. A toolbar should appear under the "Tools" button with labels such as "Any time ▼," "All results ▼," and "Advanced Search." Click on "All results ▼" and a dropdown menu will appear with two options: "All results," and "Verbatim." Then click on "Verbatim" to enable to it.

The dropdown menu that enables the verbatim mode on Google.
The menu item that enables verbatim mode.

After you click on it, Google will search for the same thing you had searched again, but this time in verbatim mode, which means Google will only include webpages that contain the words you typed exactly as you typed it, instead of matching synonyms or phrases Google thinks mean the same thing as your query.

Note that verbatim mode only ensures the words are exactly the same and it doesn't preserve the order of the words. This means if you search for "amazing movies" in verbatim mode, you can still get results with that match "movies that are amazing." In order to search for a phrase exactly, keeping the order, you need to use double quotes, like this:

"amazing movies"

This is the double quote operator that I mentioned earlier, and you don't need to enable the verbatim mode for this to work.

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