You can use Gmail search the same way you'd use Google Search, by entering a word (or multiple words) that appears anywhere within the message you want to locate. If you're looking for a message that contains the word shopping, simply type shopping in the search field and press Search Mail. Your results will be displayed with your search terms highlighted in yellow.
Gmail doesn't recognize special search characters like square brackets, parentheses, currency symbols, the ampersand, the pound sign, and asterisks. It also doesn't recognize partial or similar matches, so a search for travel will find travel, but not travels, traveler, or travle.
If you're having trouble finding the result you want, you can refine your query by clicking Show search options next to the search box, and entering your criteria in the appropriate fields (or use our advanced operators).
To learn more about Gmail's search features, click one of the options below: