How to use “q”, “qInTitle” and “qInMeta” parameters’ advanced search in NewsData.io API

In this article, we’ll delve into the significance of “q”, “qInTitle”, and “qInMeta” Advanced Search parameters, exploring how they help users to extract precise and narrowed news data.

How is q and qInTitle Useful?

The “q”, “qInTitle” and “qInMeta” parameters are exclusive features of NewsData.io’s Advanced Search function. They are designed to enhance the quality of your searches and enable you to retrieve articles that are directly related to your specified keywords.

1. q: The “q” parameter is short for the query. You can enter your keyword or phrase in the q parameter and the API will retrieve all those articles containing that keyword on the title, URL, meta description, or full content of the articles.
For example, if you put “q=messi” then the API will fetch all the articles

2. qInTitle: qInTitle stands for “query in title”. It is designed specifically to fetch those articles that contain the keyword/phrase in the title only.
qInTitle doesn’t search from URL, meta description, or full content of the articles and thus narrows down the search results, ensuring that the retrieved articles are more relevant to your searched keyword/phrase.
For example, if you put “qInTitle=modi” then the API will fetch all the articles that contain the keyword modi in their title.

3. qInMeta: qInMeta stands for “query in meta”. This will help users fetch those articles that contain the entered query in Title, URL, Meta Description, and Meta Keyword.

However, it is important to note that whenever you send your query you cannot use q, qInTitle, and qInMeta at the same time.

How to Use q, qInTitle, and qInMeta

•  First, determine the keyword you want to target and get articles about.
• When making an API request, include the “q” or “qInTitle” parameters along with your chosen keywords. For example, if you’re interested in articles related to Ronalod, you can set “q=Ronaldo” to retrieve articles that mention this topic in their content. If you want to specifically target articles with “Ronaldo” in their titles, use “qInTitle=Ronaldo“.
• The API will then return articles that match your specified criteria. This precision ensures you only receive articles that directly relate to your chosen keywords.

For retrieving articles that have keyword anywhere in the entire content and title
https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&q=messi

For retrieving the articles that have keywords on Title
https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&qInTitle=messi

For retrieving the article which has keywords on the title, URL, meta description, and meta keyword.
https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&qInMeta=messi

There are several parameters that you need to consider before entering your first query.

1. For a single keyphrase, your parameter would be q=football or qintitle=music.
2. If you are looking for articles that contain exact phrases then you need to put the phrase between double quotes (“ “). For example, q=” global warming” or qintitle=” harry potter”.
3. If you want to search multiple keywords to be present in each news but not necessarily together then either write all the keywords separated by a space or out AND operator between those keywords.
   For example,
4. Use q=movie AND marvel or use q=movie marvel, to search all the news having both movie and marvel keywords anywhere in the title, URL, meta description, and content. These keywords may or may not be present in those articles together.
5. For searching those articles that should exclude some terms use q=” global warming” NOT (USA). This query will show those articles that contain the term global warming and exclude all those articles that contain the term USA.
6. Another example is suppose I want to retrieve the articles related to Russia but exclude the war then the query would be https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&qInTitle=Russia NOT (War)

This will provide me with all those articles which don’t contain the term war.

• While searching for one keyword and excluding multiple keyword use. q=social NOT (pizza AND wildfire). This will exclude those articles which contains pizza and wildfire.
• https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&q=social NOT (pizza AND wildfire)
• For searching any of one keyword use q=pizza OR pasta. This will retrieve those articles which contain pizza or pasta in the entire content if you want this keyword just specifically mentioned in the title then change the q to qInTitle.
• For searching any one of the keywords between two keywords excluding one keyword use q=(pizza OR pasta) NOT global. This query will retrieve the article that contains the term pizza or pasta but won’t contain the term global.
• To exclude the specific phrase rather than the keyword the request would be q=oscars NOT (“best actor”)

“Please note that the maximum character limit for a single query (q” and “qInTitle”) is 512. If the number of characters exceeds this limit, the API will show an error. Additionally, please note that the operators AND, OR, NOT, as well as brackets, spaces, and quotes, are included in the character count.”

https://newsdata.io/api/1/news?apikey=pub_YOU API KEY&q=world OR UNESCO OR NATO OR USA OR BRICS OR meetings OR global OR INTERNATIONAL OR universal OR globally OR multinational NOT (war OR peace OR guns OR politics OR food OR fashion OR G20 OR debate OR russia OR pakistan OR deaths OR money OR GDP OR LGBTQ OR Racism OR music OR movies OR influencers OR concerts OR strike OR aliens OR killing OR illegal OR cryptocurrency OR internet OR climate OR UFO OR cartoons OR cars OR bitcoin OR flood OR earthquake OR strike OR accidents OR japan) AND mountains AND ocean

This is the maximum character limit of a query that one can search and retrieve data.

Benefits of q, qlnTitle, and qInMeta

• Relevance: By utilizing these parameters, you ensure that the articles you receive are directly related to your chosen keywords, minimizing noise and maximizing relevance.
• Focused Insights: Whether you’re researching a specific event, tracking trends, or staying updated on a particular topic, “q” and “qInTitle” filters provide focused insights that align with your interests.
• Efficiency: These parameters streamline the process of finding information by allowing you to filter out articles that don’t match your criteria.

Use case of q, qInTitle, and qInMeta need

Let’s understand how q, qInTitle, and qInMeta work for example if you looking for articles related to Messi

The q which is a query would retrieve all the articles that contain the term “Messi”. By this, you might not be able to get the specifically related article even if the content contains the phrase Messi once it retrieved that article and sometimes it won’t be relevant to you.

This problem may be solved by using qInTitle which will retrieve all the data that contain the term “Messi” in the title. On the other hand, using qInMeta will help users find those articles on the basis of the meta description which will help them to narrow down and find more relevant articles.

Where is q useful?

q is useful when you want to search and retrieve every article related to an event. for example, if I want information about the event of the Taylor Swift concert then my keyword would be “Taylor Swift concert” and News API would retrieve all articles that contain the term Taylor Swift concert even if it is mentioned in the content.

To gather the relevant information you are required to use qlnTitle which will gather all the articles that contain the keyword “Messi” in the title rather than in the content part which would bring more relevant information that the user might require and also save the credits.

Where is qInTitle useful?

qInTitle is useful in a condition in which the user wants specific news related to that query rather than getting irrelevant news. For example, if want to retrieve articles about covid vaccine and the query is “covid vaccine” the term covid vaccine would have been used in the content of those articles in which it states “When will we get covid vaccine”. Which is not relevant for me.

By using qIntitle users would get specific articles related to this query and would end up saving his/her credits.

Where is qInMeta useful?

qInMeta is useful if a user wants to search for the data which should contain the keyword in the URL, Title, and Meta description. Which will help them find descriptive data and retrieve the more relevant and less bulky number of articles.

Difference Between q, qInTitle, and qInMeta

CONCLUSION

The “q”, “qInTitle”, and “qInMeta” parameters within the Advanced Search feature of the NewsData.io API elevate your information retrieval capabilities to new heights. With the ability to target specific keywords within article content or titles, you gain precision, relevance, and efficiency in your search efforts.

Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or business professional, mastering these parameters can help you get real-time news data with accuracy, resulting in more informed decisions and insights.