# In Google, is there a way to search proper names that are also ordinary words? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981 "2006-03-04T00:14:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/1 "2006-03-04T00:14:23Z")
Does Google have a way searching for things, primarily business establishments, that are named after common nouns? For example, if I wanted to google “The Library” in Santa Monica, or “The Saloon” in San Francisco–both pubs–is there a way I can enter my query so that Google knows I’m not just searching for the common words? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/2 "2006-03-04T00:29:53Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Does Google have a way searching for things, primarily business establishments, that are named after common nouns? For example, if I wanted to google “The Library” in Santa Monica, or “The Saloon” in San Francisco–both pubs–is there a way I can enter my query so that Google knows I’m not just searching for the common words? “The Library” “Santa Monica” +pub “The Saloon” “San Francisco” (The ‘+pub’ argument seems less likely to actually filter results in this case) Subtitute or add information as appropriate. -\ filters results which have that word, +\ filters those that don’t. “\” causes google to search for the whole phrase, rather than the individual words. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/3 "2006-03-04T01:33:43Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > “The Library” “Santa Monica” +pub > “The Saloon” “San Francisco” (The ‘+pub’ argument seems less likely to actually filter results in this case) > > Subtitute or add information as appropriate. -\ filters results which have that word, +\ filters those that don’t. “\” causes google to search for the whole phrase, rather than the individual words. I though of those, but as you say they’re not terribly precise or useful. A place might not call itself a pub even though customers do. I was hoping there might be a way of adding qualifiers to the word. Come to think of it, I suppose the address would be the best thing to add, but you have to remember the address to be able to do that. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/4 "2006-03-04T01:49:42Z")
To answer your exact question, no I don’t think so. [Here](http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en) is the advanced search page and I don’t see anything like what you want. I guess there could be something unpublished or hidden, but that doesn’t seem to be Google’s style. As the joke goes, their features tend to go beta quickly. Is your goal to filter all of the search hits to only include things about your proper noun? Or are you just trying to find a particular main site about your proper noun? For example, the examples **Tenug** gave will get you the main sites on the first page, but maybe you want to see all sites about The Library pub. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/5 "2006-03-04T02:50:11Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > I though of those, but as you say they’re not terribly precise or useful. A place might not call itself a pub even though customers do. I was hoping there might be a way of adding qualifiers to the word. You can use ~ in front of a term in Google to tell it to accept synonyms. This you could use ~pub to find pages including synonyms of “pub”. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/6 "2006-03-04T02:51:58Z")
For business establishments (especially restaurants and other types of retail stores), [Yahoo! Local](http://local.yahoo.com/) might be a better search engine. Sample searches: [The Library](http://local.yahoo.com/results?stx=%22The%20library%22&csz=Santa%20Monica,%20CA) [The Saloon](http://local.yahoo.com/results;_ylt=AvD9f3bnUCkTN1Zn32v4jiKHNcIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBtbGZ2dXFpBF9zAzk2NjEzNzY3BHNlYwNzZWFyY2g-?stx=%22The+Saloon%22&csz=San+Francisco%2C+CA&fr=) The closest thing Google has is probably Google Local, but Yahoo’s service is better. You get good descriptions and user reviews – neither of which Google offers. If you must stick with (normal) Google for something, at least the Local searches would give you an address to add to your query. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-google-is-there-a-way-to-search-proper-names-that-are-also-ordinary-words/346981/7 "2006-03-04T03:16:55Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Does Google have a way searching for things, primarily business establishments, that are named after common nouns? For example, if I wanted to google “The Library” in Santa Monica, or “The Saloon” in San Francisco–both pubs–is there a way I can enter my query so that Google knows I’m not just searching for the common words? Pardon me if I’m insulting your google expertise, but in your post you put “The library” in quotes. Do you also do that in your google search? Putting things in quotes forces google to find your exact phrase, and doing that plus Santa Monica I found [Library Alehouse](http://libraryalehouse.com/). Was that what you were looking for?