Good to know: Smart Search is available on web. You can search and get book suggestions in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish — but key excerpts are only available from titles published in English.
Add meaning to your search
Turn on Smart Search
Go to the Perlego library and find the search dropdown next to the search bar.
Select Smart Search (the default is Title Search).
Type your research question or a short phrase — for example, "what are the origins of democracy?"
Press Enter to see your results.
How your results work
With Smart Search turned on, your results are grouped into two sections:
Key books — full books from across the library that are most relevant to your question, even if they don't contain your exact words.
Key excerpts — short snippets pulled from over 500,000 English-language titles, so you can see the most relevant passages without skimming whole books.
You can click any excerpt to jump straight to that passage inside the book.
When Smart Search shines
Smart Search works best when you're researching ideas, not chasing a specific book title. A few situations where it really helps:
Exploring a broad topic. Start with a question like "how does social media affect teenage mental health?" to surface books and passages across psychology, sociology, and media studies — even ones that don't use your exact words.
Finding evidence for a specific argument. Looking for a quote on a precise point? Try "examples of cognitive bias in investing decisions" and Smart Search will pull the most relevant excerpts.
Crossing disciplines. When your research spans fields, Smart Search picks up connections that keyword search misses. Try "ethics of artificial intelligence in healthcare".
Tracing an idea through different authors. Search for a concept like "the role of memory in identity" to see how different writers approach the same theme.
Tips to get the most out of Smart Search
Ask questions, don't type keywords. "What caused the French Revolution?" works better than "French Revolution causes".
Be specific. Narrow your question by time, place, or discipline — "the impact of automation on US manufacturing in the 21st century" beats "automation".
Rephrase if results don't fit. If your first search misses, try the question another way or add context (a country, era, or field).
Use the right tool for the job. If you already know the title or author, Title Search is faster. Use Smart Search when you're exploring an idea or hunting for evidence.
Save what you find. Add useful books to a bookshelf so you can come back to them while you write.
Limits
Which languages does Smart Search work in?
You can search and get book suggestions in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Key excerpts are only available from books published in English.
Search in any supported language to surface relevant books — only the excerpt previews are limited to English titles.
How many books does Smart Search look at?
Smart Search scans the full Perlego library for relevant books and over 500,000 English-language titles for excerpts.
Switch back to Title Search
If you'd rather search by exact title, author, or keyword:
Open the search dropdown next to the search bar.
Select Title Search.
Your next search will run as a standard keyword search.
Troubleshooting
If you can't find the Smart Search option
Check you're using Perlego on the web — Smart Search isn't available in the mobile app yet.
Refresh the page. If the dropdown still doesn't appear, sign out and back in.
If your results don't look relevant
Try a more specific question or phrase ("origins of Athenian democracy" works better than "democracy").
Use full sentences or questions — Smart Search is designed for natural language, not single keywords.
If you're not seeing any excerpts
Excerpts only come from English-language titles, so a search with no English books in the results won't show any.
Try rephrasing your query in English to see excerpt previews.
Tell us what you think
Wish you could get key excerpts in your language too? Tell us — we use these requests to decide what to build next. Share my idea →
Smart Search is still evolving, and your experience helps us shape it. If something worked well — or didn't — we'd love to hear about it. Share my feedback →
Contact support
For the fastest help, chat with Fin — our AI assistant — from any page in our Help Centre. Fin can answer common questions and guide you to the right next step.
If you need direct human support, email us at [email protected]