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Reddit Advanced Search Builder
Reddit has a real search syntax and almost nobody uses it. Fill in the boxes, and this assembles the query properly — then hands you both the Reddit search and the Google version, because they return different things.
Quick check
One sum and it runs. This keeps bots from draining the tool, and you will not be asked again for a week.
Why use Google as well
Reddit’s own search has always been weak on older content and it doesn’t index
comments the way Google does. Run the same terms both ways. The Google version uses
site:reddit.com and will frequently surface a comment from six years ago that
Reddit’s own search won’t return at all.
If you’re looking for a person rather than a topic, Google is usually the better of the two, because the useful material is almost always in a comment.
What Reddit is actually good for in an investigation
People say things on Reddit they would never put on a platform where their name appears. Local subreddits are full of residents discussing their own neighbourhoods. Hobby subreddits establish interests, equipment, and spending. Employment subreddits establish where somebody works and what they think of it. A username that appears on Reddit very often appears on three other platforms too.
Deleted posts aren’t always gone — see recovering deleted and archived posts.
Operators this builds for you
subreddit:restrict to one communityauthor:everything one account postedtitle:match the title only, which cuts noise hardselftext:match the body of text postsflair:match the tag applied to a postsite:posts linking to a given domainself:yesorself:notext posts or link posts- Quotes for an exact phrase, and a minus sign to exclude
Related
Course
Google Power Searching for Investigators
The operators that turn a search box into an investigative tool, with the examples that actually come up in casework.
See the course