Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

How do I search my Gmail mailbox?

Alright, Dave, you've convinced me to sign up and use Google's Gmail Service and I now have an ever-growing pile of archived messages. I know that I can just type in a word or two to the search engine and find messages, but being Google, I'm wondering if there are more sophisticated searches I can use?

Dave's Answer:

Glad you're enjoying Gmail! If anyone wants an invite to get a Gmail account of their own, please read my article on how to get a Gmail account.

I did some digging around and was rather pleased to find out that the Gmail search system has lots and lots of what we search engine folk call predicates, specific tags you can apply to a word so that it matches a specific type of data. It's like the powerful site: predicate in the regular Google search system (and you know about that, right?)

The easiest search predicates to learn for Gmail are from:, to: and subject:. For example, want to find a message from me? Look for from:taylor in your Gmail archive. Want to find all messages from me that mention blogging? Try from:taylor subject:blog.

You can also use some of the standard Google search modifiers too. Add an OR (must be capitalized!) and you'll change the logic of your search, allowing you to search for all messages from me or my buddy Dan: from:taylor OR from:dan. Additionally a "-" excludes matches, so a search for messages from me that aren't about blogging could be from:taylor -blogging

You can also search for a specific label with label:, search for messages that have attachment with has:attachment (which means that -has:attachment will match messages that don't have attachments, of course), and you can look for the message or messages that have a specified file as an attachment with filename:.

Here's a cool one to know too: messages that are in your Spam or Trash folders won't automatically match your searches, but you can add them to the search pool with in:anywhere or, if you must, specify an exact location with in:inbox, in:trash, or in:spam.

If you can search the to: it should be no surprise that you can also search cc and bcc:, though the latter is of limited use because you should never receive a message with an explicitly Bcc list, as that'd defeat the purpose of a "blind" carbon copy.

Finally, you can also constrain your searches by date. Use before: or after: with dates in the format "yyyy/mm/dd" format. To search for messages I sent you that had JPG attachments prior to Feb 14, 2005, for example, you could use:

in:anywhere from:taylor filename:JPG before:2005/02/14

As always, the Google tool is very nice and very powerful.

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 3979)
Tagged:
Previous: Weird leaping mouse problems?
Next: Windows display driver glitch?

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

You can take it a step further and make a firefox search shortcut or add bookmarks to frequent searches or labels, if you'd like. Appending your search query to this string:

For instance, in Firefox, if you make a bookmark with the following:
http://gmail.google.com/gmail?search=query&view=tl&fs=1&q=%s
and assign it a shortcut (say you use gm), then you can type 'gm johnny' in your location box to have it search gmail for "johnny". If you just want to make a bookmark, replace %s with your query.

Posted by: Allen at April 30, 2005 9:19 PM

Thanks for the tips on searching in trash/spam!

Posted by: DeXTroZ at October 29, 2005 9:45 PM

can you help me find my gmail Icon?

laurieboychuk@gmail.com

Posted by: laurie boyhuk at April 21, 2006 8:33 AM

when i click on welcome to gmail to access my g mail I get thevnptice this page can not bebprovided I am not able to access my gmail. My server is aol and aol address is maxheeb27 @aol.com

Posted by: Max Heeb at November 17, 2006 7:35 AM

REAL basic question, how do I access gmail when I turn on computer? I use firefox 2.0. There is no icon. I have to go to history to access gmail.

Posted by: Dave Kent at February 15, 2007 9:10 PM

cannopt access my Gmail

Posted by: Opal H. Green or Patricia Sobrero at February 23, 2007 2:16 PM

Hi ! I am looking for a solution on previewing gmail attachments. I receive email attachments in bulk from my office. The subject column always has the following:... Acknowledging a copy of your file..." with an attachment of the original file send by me.

Now, is there a way I can preview the attachment (Like in Yahoo message search) for that is where my data is stored. I have to constantly refer archives and hence would be happy to have a preview. I have over 3000 emails with attachments and finding the right one is a major problem. Hope you can help.

Posted by: KRISHNA KUMAR at April 2, 2007 11:49 PM

gmail wont accept my password which iknow is correct nearly a week without any help from gmail this is my third submission
ive put my name and email address in
what does url stand for
dont brag about gmail it is absolute rubbish

Posted by: tom maguire at April 21, 2007 2:44 PM

I use POP forwarding to read my mail from Gmail using Outlook. However, recently my hdd crashed and lost my mail. Fortunately it is still in gmail. I would like to receive it again at Outlook but gmail won't let me. It is archived in 'All Mail'. I tried marking them as unread and moving to Inbox, but it didn't work. I hope there is a solution. Thanks for your help.

Posted by: Dimitris at April 29, 2007 2:59 PM

Hi, Dave,

When visiting my daughter, who also has a gmail account, I'm unable to access my gmail account on her computer. When I log on to gmail it opens directly into her inbox. How to get around this, please?

Posted by: Sheila at May 14, 2007 7:29 PM

Easy one, Sheila! On the top right there's a "Sign Out" link. Click on it, then log in as you. Log out when you're done and your daughter will just have to log in again to be back to where she was. Or, plan b, download Firefox onto her computer and use that browser for your Gmail, and let her stick with IE/Safari/whatever for her own Gmail! :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at May 14, 2007 10:20 PM

How can I go to the gmail mail box from my google account? There is no option in the page (inbox or something else)

Posted by: sharon at May 21, 2007 6:31 AM

The only thing that I.m liking about g-mail is that it is fast... One problem that upsets me is it is like my address book is out in the back 40. I like to have my address book beside me when I am writing a letter. I put one name on the top line and the rest of my friends name on the bc.
I was thinking of changing to yahoo, would that be any better.
hope you can help me

Posted by: yvonne at July 11, 2007 5:36 PM

i have the same problem i always wished to have my contacts beside me when i was writing an e-mail i just signed up for g-mail but i was using hotmail but the new version windows live mail and for there i could get my contacts all you have to do is click on to: and it will show you your list of contacts!

Posted by: Re:yvonne at August 16, 2007 2:15 PM

MY FRIEND NAME IS SU MYAT NWAY.ILIKE TO KNOW HER GMAIL ADDRESS.COULD YOU SEARCH IT?

Posted by: MYO HTUT HLAING at August 25, 2007 7:43 AM

i cant see my mail

Posted by: patricia garcia at February 20, 2008 10:04 AM

How can i go to the gmail mail box from my google account

Posted by: patricia g at February 20, 2008 10:08 AM

cant enter my e-mail box

Posted by: naomiw08 at April 20, 2008 4:51 PM

Cannot get my gmail or send it either.
Please help.

Posted by: willard Hellwig at May 3, 2008 1:26 PM

I have received an email from my sister which I wish to forward to my daughter. How do I do this.

Posted by: elsie hemming at September 21, 2008 11:19 PM

I cannot get into my gmail to read my email.
I have entered my gmail address and my password, which I know is correct, but, it won't open my mailbox. please help me
Thank you,
Connie

Posted by: Connie at November 12, 2008 5:55 PM

i donot now my username an my password

Posted by: tubeyare at November 16, 2008 3:07 PM

i want to know the name of pwintthandarsoe and shamin gamil

Posted by: Min Chit Thu at January 30, 2009 1:07 AM

how do i shorten my email as others did in the ubove paragraphs?

Posted by: dayna masullo at March 20, 2009 1:57 PM

i am trying to sign up and i am not getting logged on!!

Posted by: nathanjones at April 1, 2009 10:25 AM

I cannot access my gmail. please advise as to
what I should do.

Posted by: josephine pellegrino at April 19, 2009 7:27 AM

I CANT ENTER MY GMAIL BOX. IT SAYS MY PASSWORD IE WRONG

Posted by: HOWARD CARPENTER at May 3, 2009 11:06 AM

i use google for most everything but now i cant even get to read my daily gmail and google disappeared from my tool bar to even punch in google,its a mess

Posted by: bonnie flowers at June 24, 2009 8:00 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!