# Why doesn't Google allow Boolean searches?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-google-allow-boolean-searches/548625>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 30, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-google-allow-boolean-searches/548625 "2010-07-30T22:30:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-google-allow-boolean-searches/548625/41 "2010-08-05T22:58:37Z")

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Surely, Google shouldn’t be the _only_ tool used for any serious research, but it is a very handy tool for a wide variety of purposes. It’d be silly to do without it.

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-google-allow-boolean-searches/548625/42 "2010-08-05T23:53:18Z")

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> [@ivn1188](#):
>
> Google’s big success was that it was better and quicker at delivering relevant results, rather than simply being a search engine like, say, Lexis, which finds exactly what you ask and nothing else (which is why Lexis recently introduced a Google-style natural language search that tries to find relevant documents). In other words, you have it exactly backwards – if boolean searches were so great, Google never would have been invented or become the best search engine virtually overnight.

Two comments:

First, you’re overgeneralizing. Boolean searches are fantastic (I would even say better than natural language) for mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and other people who understand how Boolean logic works. On the other hand, Boolean searches are a disaster for people who don’t think that way. Fuzzy logic is the way to go for them. But when I want precise results, I can’t get them from Google anymore.

Second, I don’t think Google became the _best_ search engine virtually overnight. I think it became the _most popular_ search engine, specifically because it worked better for non-techies, which now constitute the majority of Web users.

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