What does "tbm" mean in Google Search

Question

What does "tbm" mean in Google Search? For example: https://www.google.com/?tbm=dsc

On one page in comments some "Johnny" suggested it could mean "Term By Method" , otherwise it's a search result type indicator. — jave.web, May 7, 2016 at 9:06

ale · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 20:44:35Z

24

Don't know what it stands for, but the tbm URL parameter appears to indicate the filter used. For example:

So, tbm=dsc is "Discussions".

However, it also appears that a lot of these filters are also no longer natively available. (source)

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 20:44

ale

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Even Google's official documentation, uses tbm in an example but never defines it, nor lists its valid values! developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/…
– Michaelangel007
Apr 27, 2016 at 15:03
tbm=lcl is used for Local search - this can, for example, be used to find businesses currently open, or open on a particular day of the week, or with a particular minimum rating. That's actually not for example — those seem to be the only options available in Local Search currently. Note that it's not actually called Local Search anywhere in the interface.
– intuited
Nov 21, 2017 at 4:37

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RNA · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-07 04:56:51Z

11

you can do the same with tbs

answered Dec 13, 2017 at 4:53

RNA

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Thank you for the info. Could you provide the source of your answer, please?
– Almir Campos
Jan 13, 2019 at 19:41
tnx but as @AlmirCampos said we need a source for this , for example i readed somewhere that that tbm stands for "Term By Method" not "to be matched"!
– TechDogLover OR kiaNasirzadeh
Oct 29, 2019 at 9:55

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