Help:Advanced source searching

Advanced source searching can provide higher quality search results compared to simpler standard searches. Customizing searches can filter out unhelpful results, including through the use of custom search engines.

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, 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 or by removing subdomains that aren't helpful e.g. "Search topic" -inurl:/opinion/ -inurl:/editorial/ -inurl:/commentary/ -inurl:/blog/ -inurl:/newsletters/ -inurl:/press-release/ -inurl:/author/ -inurl:/profile/ -inurl:/people/ -inurl:/by/ -inurl:/tag/ -inurl:/topic/
• When looking for a specific article, try searching just the authors' names and keywords. (Article titles and dates are more likely to change over time…)

Advanced search options

Using AI

See also: Artificial intelligence in Wikimedia projects and Wikipedia:Artificial intelligence

If you have discovered other useful techniques for search using AI, please include below

Use-case	Prompts	AI Skills	Model(s)	Notes
suggesting sources to read
finding access to sources
searching for sources

Custom search engines

General-purpose Google Programmable Search Engines

Name	Project Page or Owner	Last update	Lowest-rated perennial source	Queries/day
Wikipedia Reference Search	project page	April 2026	Generally reliable	94
GRel Source Engine	User:Aaron Liu	May 2026	Generally reliable	11
Reliable Source Engine	project page	April 2026	Generally reliable	11
Reliable perennial sources	User:Barkeep49	2020?	Generally unreliable	?
Reliable sources search engine	User:A Quest For Knowledge	2010?	Generally unreliable	?

WikiProject search engines

WikiProject search engines

WikiProject lists of reliable sources	Custom search engine	Updated	Added by
Anime and manga	1	2026	User:Crestfalling
California	1	2026	User:Superb Owl
Center-right reliable sources	1	2026	User:Superb Owl
Children’s literature	1	2019	User:Barkeep49
Fact-checking	1	2026	User:Hearvox
Film	1	2020	User:Squid45
Free and open-source software	1	2022	User:K4rolB
Journalism	1	2026	User:Superb Owl
Korea	1	2023	User:Freedom4U
Music	1	2020	User:Lazman321
Podcasting	Multiple	2023	User:TipsyElephant
Professional wrestling	(see page)	2025	User:Starship.paint
Technology	1	2026	User:Superb Owl
Video games	Multiple	2016	User:Czar

Wikipedia Library

See also: Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library and The Wikipedia Library

Using the search bar does not return results from every available source:

1. Sources without a solid black magnifying glass in the top-left corner should be searched individually in order to return results from them. Gray magnifying glasses indicate that it is only returning partial results. Starring the sources of interest without a solid black magnifying glass makes conducting these follow-up individual searches easier.
2. Look at 'Available Collections' for a few dozen sources that you would need to put in a request to Wikipedia Library for possible access.

By topic

• Identifying reliable sources (history)
• Identifying reliable sources (science)
• Identifying reliable sources (medicine)

Source searching

• List of online newspaper archives
• List of free online resources
• List of search engines
• Specific uses of search engines in Wikipedia
• Wikipedia:New pages patrol source guide
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange

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