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Last week, Google announced a significant update to its search results that could help you find what you want more quickly and easily. Now, when you search Google using quotation marks, you’ll see more informative results.
Previously, when you searched Google using a word or phrase in quotation marks, results would show websites that contain that exact word or phrase. But the snippets (those short descriptions below the website title) wouldn’t necessarily include that phrase. So you wouldn’t see the context in which the phrase was used.
Google has made a significant change to its search results to solve that problem.
Google’s Big Change to Its Search Results
Sometimes you need to search the Internet for an exact phrase. And the best way to search for an exact phrase is to use quotation marks.
By using quotation marks around a phrase, you’re telling Google that you want to search for those exact words in that exact order. When you search for a word or phrase in quotation marks, Google will only show you websites and pages that contain that exact word or phrase.
If you care enough about a search term to use quotation marks, then you probably care enough about the results to want to know how the search term is used on websites listed in the results.
Now, Google has changed its search results to show the quoted search term in the snippets.
Yonghao Jin, Google Software Engineer for Search explains, “Now we’re making quoted searches better. The snippets we display for search results (meaning the text you see describing web content) will be formed around where a quoted word or phrase occurs in a web document. That means you can more easily identify where to find them after you click the link and visit the content.”
In its announcement, Google cited the example of searching for “Google Search”. Now, the search results for “Google Search” will show snippets of how “Google Search” is used in context.
Previously, Google did not include the quoted search term in snippets because sometimes the term might appear in places unsuitable for snippets, such as a sidebar menu. In responding to popular demand, Google changed its policy and began creating snippets that include quoted search terms.
If you use your computer to search for a word or phrase in quotation marks, Google will show the word or phrase in bold to help you find it on a website.
What Else You Need to Know
In its announcement, Google did warn about a few issues. First, Google advises that a website may have been recently updated, eliminating the quoted search term. Also, the quoted word or phrase might appear in places not visible on a website, such as in the description of an image.
The quoted word or phrase may appear only in the title of the website or the URL (web address). If the quoted words or phrase appears multiple times on a web page, the snippet will only show the most relevant result.
Tip => Use Control + F (Windows) or Command + F (Mac) to find a word or phrase on a web page.
Your Thoughts
Do you use quotation marks to search for exact words or phrases on Google? Do you like the idea of seeing how a word or phrase is used in the search result snippet? Have you ever struggled to find a searched term on a web page?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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*Computer with magnifying glass image (edited) from Shutterstock via PicMonkey Pro
Google is a lifeline for pretty much everyone, and features like these make the experience only better.
Hi Archana, Yes, exactly. We rely on Google a lot to gather information about our world. It’s great that Google is making the search results more informative.
I didn’t know about this Google update until now. I have never used quotation marks in Google search before. Thank you very much for this information. I will use this search behavior in my research. Keep up the good work
Hi Michel, Yes, using quotation marks when you’re searching on Google can be an effective way to see more targeted results. And now those results can be more informative, helping you find what you’re searching for more easily.
This is good to know Carolyn. Google is on the ball as is but making this improvement gives users a clear idea of how to find specific content with particular words. For the first time I checked out Duck Duck Go earlier today. I do respect the idea of a search engine that claims to be strict on privacy yet it is light years behind Google in terms of accuracy. I searched my name and was quite surprised at some of the results on page one. Google still is #1 in terms of search engines and nothing’s going to touch it for a long time.
Looks like this quoted snippet feature might give us better and deeper results from now on. Will try using it to check its effectiveness.
Hi Archana, Yes, this update could provide better search results, helping you to find what you’re searching for faster and more efficiently!
I found this all very confusing.
Hi Pat, I am sorry to hear that you were confused by this. What part confused you? I will try to better explain this Google Search update.