Default Operation :
Multiple search terms are processed as an AND operation by default. Phrase matches are ranked higher

Boolean Searching :
Google uses an automatic Boolean AND between terms and has slowly been moving towards more Boolean support; however, it does not yet support the AND operator, NOT operator, or full Boolean searching with the ability to nest operators. In Feb. 1999, Google added the - symbol to perform a NOT function. In Oct. 2000, they added the ability to use an OR (which must be in upper case) to do some Boolean OR operations.

The + used to be able to be used to require a term, but since the default operation was AND, the + was never really needed and for a while caused the following message to appear:
Google always searches for pages containing all the words in your query, so you do not need to use + in front of words.

However, the + can be used for forcing a search on stop words and for requiring Google to search for only that exact term without any possible plural/singular, synonyms, and grammatical variants.

Proximity Searching :
In Feb. 1999, Google added phrase searching designated in the usual manner by enclosing the phrase in "double quotes." Google also detects phrase matches even when the quotes are not used and usually ranks phrase matches higher. No other proximity searching is directly available. However, using the wildcard word within a phrase trick described below, the unofficial Google API Proximity Search tool can reproduce proximity searching up to a distance of 3 words.

Truncation :
No truncation is available. Some automatic plural searching and word stemming occurs for English words and can be turned off by using the plus sign in front of each term that should not be stemmed. However, within phrases, there is a trick which can be used for a wildcard word. Use an asterisk * within a phrase search to match any word in that position. So, for example, to find "a little neglect may breed mischief" when you are not sure of the second to last word, search "a little neglect may * mischief" . Multiple asterisks can be used as in "a little * * * mischief" . This is the only way Google supports a wildcard symbol.

While not exactly truncation, the synonym operator of a tilde ~ before a search term, with no space,  to tell Google to look for synonyms. So a search on yosemite ~trails will find pages that have terms like 'hiking,' 'rides,' and 'maps.' This synonym finder will sometimes include plural, singular, or other grammatical variants as well. So the earlier search also found matches with 'trail' and 'trailer.' So the ~ can be used to get something a bit closer to truncation but not very. Bear in mind that the ~ only works in Google's Web database and only for English language terms.

Case Sensitivity :
Google has no case sensitive searching. Using either lower or upper case results in the same hits.

Field Searching :
Google offers several field searches connected with entering URLs. In the December 2000 revision of its advanced search form , it add several title and URL field searches.

Note that most field searching cannot be combined with other query words. In others words, a search entered such as uniqueword link:name.com will only be processed as if only the field search was present as in link:name.com . The uniqueword is ignored. The  intitle: and inurl: fields can be combined with other search terms but allintitle: and allinurl: cannot.  Field Explanation

intitle:	Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. Can be combined with other search terms. intitle:search engines . This should find 'search' in the title and 'engines' anywhere in the page.
inurl:	Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). Can be combined with other search terms. inurl:searchenginewatch .
allintitle:	Finds pages that have the term(s) in the HTML title element. allintitle:search engines .
link:	Finds pages which contain hypertext links to the exact specified URL. link:notess.com/search finds pages with links to this site.
allinurl:	Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the URL (host name, path, or filename). allinurl:searchenginewatch .
site:	Finds pages from the designated Web site. Paths and file names cannot be included. site:notess.com
allinanchor:	Finds pages that have the term(s) somewhere in the links to the page. .
related:	Invokes GoogleScout to find other pages similar in linkage patterns to the given URL and at a similar hierarchical level. The URL must be exact. In other works related:notess.com and related:www.notess.com find different results.
numrange:	Finds a range of numbers. Either 5..11 or numrange:5-11 works.
pricerange:	Finds a range of numbers prefixed by the $ sign. Either $5..11 or pricerange:5-11 works..
flink:	Used to find pages linked from the given URL. No longer working as of Oct. 30, 1999. flink:notess.com

Before the official release in Sept. 1999, clicking the small bar graph at the beginning of a displayed hit would automatically run a link: search, but that graphic disappeared with the official launch. Another field search which can be used is related:[URL] which invokes GoogleScout to find other pages similar in linkage patterns to the given URL.

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