Gmail Advanced Search for Mails, Spam & Trash

Is Gmail your primary personal email? Gmail has better spam control and is faster. I use Ananthapuri.com email (provided by Google Apps) as the primary for work and home. It has the same features as Gmail, including the Google Talk, but has my own domain name. As you would have noticed, Gmail now provides more than 5 GB space and it is growing at the rate of 100 MB per month.

One of the features that make Gmail so user friendly is its searchability. In the Gmail Searchbox, you can enter a word or multiple words that appears anywhere within the message you want to locate – just like how you use Google search.

You can make your search more specific using Gmail’s search options. Click ‘Show search options‘ next to the search box, and enter your criteria in the appropriate fields. This is the user friendly search interface.

Yesterday a Prospect called me up and told that he had sent me an email a few days back and he did not receive any reply yet. I guessed his email would have gone to spam, as I did not find it in the inbox. I searched for the mail using Gmail search, but it did not return any result. But when I checked the messages in Spam folder one by one, I found it there. Why was it considered spam? Because his email server is blacklisted. Why did not the search return any result? Because Gmail search does not search in Spam and Trash unless we specifically select the option in Advanced Search options.

Gmail search won’t recognize matches to partial strings or matches that are ‘similar’ to your query (stemming), including plurals and misspellings. If you search for travel, Gmail returns messages containing instances of travel, but doesn’t return messages including travels or travels. Gmail search does not include the contents of message attachments. Search results do not include matches to most special characters, such as square brackets [], parentheses (), currency symbols $, ampersands &, pound signs #, and asterisks *.

Gmail doesn’t search for message in Spam or Trash unless you tell it to. To search all mails including Spam and Trash, use the Show Search Options, next to the searchbox in Gmail page, and select Mail & Spam & Trash from the Search: drop-down menu.

You also can target your search using special words and symbols called advanced operators. Please note that the ‘or’ function in Gmail is represented by ‘OR,’ and the ‘not’ function is represented by a minus (-). You also can use quotes (” “) to specify an exact phrase.

The table of advanced operators are given below for your easy reference, thanks to Google.

Operator	Definition	Example(s)
from:	Used to specify the sender	Example – from:amy Meaning – Messages from Amy
to:	Used to specify a recipient	Example – to:david Meaning – All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject:	Search for words in the subject line	Example – subject:dinner Meaning – Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject
OR	Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all caps	Example – from:amy OR from:david Meaning – Messages from Amy or from David
– (hyphen)	Used to exclude messages from your search	Example – dinner -movie Meaning – Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "movie"
label:	Search for messages by label* *There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages	Example – from:amy label:friends Meaning – Messages from Amy that have the label "friends" Example – from:david label:my-family Meaning – Messages from David that have the label "My Family"
has:attachment	Search for messages with an attachment	Example – from:david has:attachment Meaning – Messages from David that have an attachment
filename:	Search for an attachment by name or type	Example – filename:physicshomework.txt Meaning – Messages with an attachment named "physicshomework.txt" Example – label:work filename:pdf Meaning – Messages labeled "work" that also have a PDF file as an attachment
" " (quotes)	Used to search for an exact phrase* *Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration	Example – "i’m feeling lucky" Meaning – Messages containing the phrase "i’m feeling lucky" or "I’m feeling lucky" Example – subject:"dinner and a movie" Meaning – Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a movie" in the subject
( )	Used to group words Used to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded	Example – from:amy(dinner OR movie) Meaning – Messages from Amy that contain either the word "dinner" or the word "movie" Example – subject:(dinner movie) Meaning – Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "movie"
in:anywhere	Search for messages anywhere in your account* *Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default	Example – in:anywhere subject:movie Meaning – Messages in All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word "movie"
in:inbox in:trash in:spam	Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam	Example – in:trash from:amy Meaning – Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:starred is:unread is:read	Search for messages that are starred, unread or read	Example – is:read is:starred from:David Meaning – Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star
cc: bcc:	Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields* *Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied	Example – cc:david Meaning – Messages that were cc-ed to David
after: before:	Search for messages sent during a certain period of time* *Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.	Example – after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 Meaning – Messages sent after April 16, 2004, but before April 18, 2004.* *More precisely: Messages sent on April 17, 2004.
is:chat	Search for chat messages	Example – ischat:monkey Meaning – Any chat message including the word “monkey.”

BTW, watch the final collaborative video on how a Gmail message travels around the world.