Google will assist your research by making “Advanced Search” easier to find

Google Search – arguably the world’s most dominant search tool – just got a little more powerful (and a touch more user-friendly). While Google’s AI prowess grabs headlines, this recent update brings a welcome change to streamline the everyday search experience.

Advanced Search, that toolkit for narrowing down your results, has always been there. But like your least-used pair of jeans, it was often buried somewhere in the browser’s Settings menu. Google’s team knows we sometimes need search results tailored with surgical precision, so the decision to make Advanced Search more prominent makes a whole lot of sense.

Say “Hello” to the Tools bar

Ever noticed that row of options under the Google search bar – things like “All”, “Images”, and “News”? That’s the Tools bar. Now, Advanced Search has its own spot at the end of this bar, making it way quicker to reach.

These are your basic everyday tools for finding things. I use them on a daily basis when I need to find a logo or a royalty-free image for an article. However, when I need to find something very specific, I turn to Advanced Search. An example of this in my daily workflow would be a blog post published by Google in the past week that has the keyword “Pixel” in it and does not mention “feature drop”. You get the idea. When you want a refined search, that’s where Advanced Search shines.

Why does this matter?

This update feels like Google acknowledging that performing advanced web searches are still important. Even in this age of AI-everything, where you can just ask a chatbot a question and expect to be served a quick but detailed answer, there are still times in which you need to do your own research. Also, let’s face it, AI chatbots are far from perfect and, as the disclaimers clearly state, may sometimes give you incorrect information.