Use everyday words to search

This feature is available with Google Workspace.

You can use everyday words to describe what you want to find with Google Cloud Search. For example, you can search for sheets from joe smith last week to find a spreadsheet your coworker Joe shared with you a week ago. You can search only in English for now.

Cloud Search interprets your query using search operators to give you the most relevant results. If Cloud Search doesn’t interpret your query the way you expected, at the top of the page, click the Show results for the original query link.

Rewritten query

For quick answers, the information appears on a card at the top of your search results. For example, if you search for audrey’s phone number, you get an answer card with the profile information for your colleague named Audrey. If more than one person has that name, scroll through the results or click View all, then click the correct person to open their profile information page.

Answer card

Note: You get contact and profile information only if your organization adds these details to user accounts.

Find content from your Google Workspace services

Sign in to Cloud Search at cloudsearch.google.com.
If you can't sign in, your account doesn't have Cloud Search. Learn more
Do a search, such as slides audrey sent last month.
If the interpretation isn't quite right, click the Show results for the original query link.

Find contact information for people at work

Sign in to Cloud Search at cloudsearch.google.com.
If you can't sign in, your account doesn't have Cloud Search. Learn more
Do a search, such as audrey's phone number.
Click the person's results card to open their profile information. If more than one person has the name, scroll through the results or click View all. Click the correct person's name to open their profile information page.
To contact a person or schedule a meeting with them, click the action you want to take:
- To send an email, click Email or the person's email address.
- To set up a meeting, click Schedule .
- To chat, click Hangout .
- To start a video call, click Video call .

Use common phrases

You can use phrases related to people, documents, Google services, and more. Here are some examples.

People

Common keywords	Example search queries
first name, last name, username email address address phone number job title manager reports to info about	`joe smith's email title of joe smith who reports to audrey who is audrey's manager`

You can only search for profile information that your organization sets up. If you can't search by job title, phone number, or other profile information, ask your administrator to update user profiles.

Gmail

Common keywords	Example search queries
about from received sent to me topic	`mail about sales from audrey email received yesterday from smith mail from joe smith last week`

Content/Source

Common keywords	Example search queries
files¹ documents mail sheets slides	`slides from mary moore last month documents from audrey files by smith last week mail from joe smith before 06/01/17 docs owned by mary moore`
from owned by
recently last week last year before date² after date

¹_{Includes all file types, in Drive and attachments.}
²_{When you use the before or after operators in a query, your results may include content that contains the before or after date, because of timezone differences.}

Document sharing

Common keywords	Example search queries
shared shared but not viewed mention¹ mentions not addressed² need attention³	`documents that mention me recently files shared with me in the past two weeks sheets shared by audrey docs that need attention`

¹_{Documents shared with you that mention you in a comment you viewed or didn’t view, or you've replied to.}
²_{Documents shared with you that mention you in a comment you haven’t replied to.}
³_{Documents shared with you that you haven’t viewed or that mention you in a comment you haven’t replied to.}

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?