Word Searching on Geograph

Published: 10 October 2008
[This reference refers to the 'For' box of the main image search, and the 'Keywords' box on the Advanced Search. See also General overview of the search]

Main Features



Currently searches

Entered keywords can match any of the following fields in the image metadata:





Field Searches

By default keywords match all fields (see above), but can optionally choose to restrict matches to specific fields.

Entering a field name, followed by a colon, makes all keywords after that point (or until another field name and colon), only match against that named field. (the field name is case sensitive, and must be lowercase)

NOTE: The Browser now uses a different search index, which has a different (but largely similar) set of Fields, Noted here.


(Note: it is recommended to put fields at the end of the query - i.e. normal keywords should be first)

title:arch bridge
description:road diversion
category:road

tags:bridge (search just in the tags)

text:oast house ('text' is a special case, and matches the title, description, category and tags - not the shared description(s))

year:2007 (the year the photo was taken)
month:200605 (the year-month, eg May 2006)
monthname:April (just the month, allows searching in any year)
day:20060521 (the day, eg 21st May 2006)

myriad:SH
myriad:H (of course works for single letter Irish Myriads too)
hectad:TQ49
hectad:(TQ49|TQ59|TQ69) (list of possible hectads)
gridref:TQ4192

category:"^Motte and bailey$" (exact category match)

name:"Fred Smith" (finds the words in the Photographer name)
notname:mcdonald (excludes Photographer name)
user_id:77 (find images contributed by that specific user)

status:geograph (just Geograph images, also status:supplemental)
ftf:1 (just Geograph (First) images)
ftf:2 (just Geograph (Second) images)
ftf:3 (just Geograph (Third) images)
ftf:4 (just Geograph (Fourth) images)
points:tpoint (just TPoint winning images)

snippet:oast house (looks for words in shared description attached to the image)
snippet_title:oast house (looks for words in shared description title attached to the image)
snippet_id:17 (looks for images with that specific shared description)

tags:church Search for the word church just in the tags attached to an image.

note, if wanting to search by tag prefix, don't enter the : within the tag, eg to search the tag [ river:Arthog ], you need to enter tags: "river Arthog"

Other features









More examples

bridge -description:road
=river title:bridge
"road bridge" OR "river bridge"
road bridge -"suspension bridge"
=bridge category:road
junction TQ category:"a road"
river myriad:(tq OR nt OR so)
~river afon =stream watercourse =brook
(river OR road) tree (brackets optional)

Practical tool


This tool: LinkExternal link
Allows you build a keyword search query for use on geograph, by filling in boxes. It's a great way to learn the syntax, as can see it create the query as you type in the boxes.
Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   Text © Copyright October 2008, Barry Hunter; licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence.
With contributions by Penny Mayes. (details)
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