How to Search News Smarter

Apr 6, 2025

We’ve seen it many times: a researcher opens a Google news interface, types in a few keywords like climate change, and gets flooded with thousands of loosely related articles. Valuable time is lost scrolling, filtering, and second-guessing the search strategy.

With just a few smart techniques, news search becomes faster, cleaner, and far more precise. Here’s how researchers are leveling up their workflow—starting with the basics.

Start with the Essentials: AND, OR, NOT

Simple logic can go a long way.

• AND narrows results: nvidia AND earnings

• OR expands them: chip OR semiconductor

• NOT removes noise: AI NOT ChatGPT

We’ve seen researchers cut irrelevant results in half just by combining these operators intentionally.

Exact Phrases, Not Guesswork

When one researcher needed articles on international climate summits, their initial search for climate summit pulled in travel blogs and weather reports. Switching to "climate change summit" (with quotes) delivered the relevant coverage instantly.

Quotation marks = precision.

Using Wildcards for Flexibility

Another common trick: the asterisk (*).

Example:

"Apple * event"

This captured variations like Apple product event, Apple launch event, Apple media event—without manually trying every version.

Topic-Based Search: Start Broad, Then Zoom In

Many platforms (including ours) offer topic filters like Politics, Business, Science, and more.

A biotech researcher, for example, started with the Science tag, then layered on keywords like mRNA and regulatory approval to get straight to the core of her query—no fluff, no irrelevant news.

Time Filters Make All the Difference

Need Q4 2024 coverage of Nvidia earnings? Set the date range.

Date filtering is one of the most powerful ways to zero in on relevant news. It’s how researchers track developments around specific events, cycles, or periods—without sorting through years of unrelated coverage.

Advanced Combinations for Precision

Boolean logic lets you combine everything:

(Tesla OR "Elon Musk") AND (earnings OR forecast) AND date:Q1 2024

This kind of query is how researchers move from general interest to highly specific insight—fast.

The Power of Proximity (NEAR Search)

Proximity search is a favorite among researchers looking for context.

Example: privacy NEAR/5 regulation

This shows articles where those two terms appear within five words of each other—revealing patterns and relationships a regular search would miss.

Real-World Examples

Here are a few types of queries we’ve seen researchers use successfully:

• "interest rates" AND inflation

• IPO AND "artificial intelligence" AND topic:Business

• "Ukraine war" AND weapons AND date:2023

• climate NEAR/5 policy AND topic:Politics

Need Something More Specific?

Looking for a news data set on a niche topic or a custom date range? We’ve helped researchers find:

• News about Nvidia stock during Q4 2024

• Labor protests across Southeast Asia in 2023

• AI regulation updates in the U.S. and EU