Wikipedia:Advanced source searching
Essay on editing Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Advanced source searching can provide more comprehensive and accurate search results compared to simpler standard searches, which can be useful for the assessment and determination of topic notability. Customizing searches to narrow results, using other search engines besides Google, and the general customization of search parameters can often provide several and sometimes many additional reliable sources that are not included in basic searches, such as those using Wikipedia's {{Find sources}} template.
 | This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Advanced source searching can provide more comprehensive search results compared to simpler standard searches. |
Search parameters
- Boolean searches and other custom searches can provide links that are not available in default searches. Simply using quotation marks in searches (e.g. "Search topic") can significantly narrow search results, whereby only results that have the entire term are generated.
- Customizing searches using your preferred search engine (for instance Google or DuckDuckGo) by simply adding "news" or "news," (both without quotation marks) and then the search term in quotation marks offers results different from the dedicated "news" tab. Quality, quantity and recency vary. It's often necessary to view several pages after the first page of search results when using this technique.
- Advanced search options in various search engines (like Google) can help to pinpoint coverage about topics.
- To narrow searches to specific sites, here's something that works in DuckDuckGo and Google searches (be sure to include the topic in quotation marks): "Search topic" site:www.siteexample.com This generates results only from the specified site.
- To search within a top-level domain or generic top-level domain, a "site" parameter can be added. For example: "Search topic" site:*.ro lists websites under the .ro generic top-level domain.
- Omitting results by adding a minus (-) sign and url addresses for unwanted sites can result in higher-relevance hits (or at least higher relevance hits per Wikipedia's notability standards, to omit sites that aren't valid for demonstrating topic notability) – e.g. "Search topic" -siteexample.com.
- When looking for a specific article, avoid searching by title or date since those can change over time, while author names and keywords persist.
Advanced search options
Custom search engines
| Name | Project Page or Owner | Last update | Lowest-rated perennial source | URLs | Queries/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRel Source Engine[a] | User:Aaron Liu | March 2026 |  Generally reliable |
~230 | 10 |
| Reliable Source Engine[b][a] | project page | March 2026 | Generally reliable |
246 | 7 |
| Wikipedia Reference Search | project page | October 2025 | Generally reliable |
603[1] | 30 |
| Reliable perennial sources | User:Barkeep49 | 2020? |  [2] Generally unreliable |
57 | |
| Reliable sources search engine | User:A Quest For Knowledge | 2010?[3] | Generally unreliable |
| WikiProject lists of reliable sources | Custom search engine | Status | Added by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music | 1 | Active | User:Lazman321[4] |
| Korea | 1 | Active | User:Freedom4U[5] |
| Northern California | 1 | Active | User:Superb Owl[6] |
| Film | 1 | Active | User:Squid45[7] |
| Video games | Multiple | Active | User:Odie5533[8] |
| Podcasting | Multiple | Active | User:TipsyElephant[9] |
| Center-right reliable sources | 1 | Semi-active | User:Superb Owl[10] |
| Free and open-source software | 1 | Semi-active | User:K4rolB[11] |
| Children’s literature | 1 | Semi-active | User:Barkeep49[12] |
| Anime and manga | 1 | Not working | User:Gwern[13] |
| Professional wrestling | (see page) | Active | User:Starship.paint[14] |
By topic
Source searching
See also
- Help:Find sources
- Help:Searching – about searches within Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:Overreliance upon Google – an essay
- Wikipedia:Reliable source examples – an essay
- Article Rescue Squadron Guide to saving articles – includes source searching tips
- Wikipedia:Internet Archive print disability access