For most of us Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine ( Bing also came but let wait for some time and see how it will works).
But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. We can Use these to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you're looking for, and quickly.
Basic Boolean
Whenever you search for more than one keyword at a time, Google will search for all of them. If you search for
XML "web Services Google will search for all the words. If you want to specify that either word is acceptable, you put an OR between each item
XML OR DOT NET OR "Web Services If you want to have definitely one term and one of two or more other terms, you group them with parentheses, like this
XML (DOTNET OR "Web Services") This query searches for the word “Java” or phrase “Web Services” along with the word “XML.” A stand-in for OR borrowed from the computer programming realm is the (pipe) character, as in
XML (DOTNET "Web Services") If you want to specify that a query item must not appear in your results, use a -.(minus sign or dash).
XML DOTNET -"Web Services" This will search for pages that contain both the words “XML” and “Java” but not the phrase “Web Services.”
Operators
In addition to the basic AND, OR, and quoted strings, Google offers some rather extensive special syntaxes for honing your searches. Google being a full-text search engine, it indexes entire web pages instead of just titles and descriptions. Additional commands, called special syntaxes, let Google users search specific parts of web pages or specific types of information. Specifying that your query words must appear only in the title or URL of a returned web page is a great way to have your results get very specific without making your keywords themselves too specific.
Here are some of the common keywords that you can add to your query in Google
intitle, allintitle
Restricts your search to the titles of web pages. The variation, allintitle: finds pages wherein all the words specified make up the title of the web page. It’s probably best to avoid the allintitle: variation, because it doesn’t mix well with some of the other syntaxes.
Eg: intitle:"george bush"
allintitle:"money supply" economics
inurl, allinurl
Restricts your search to the URLs of web pages. This syntax tends to work well for finding search and help pages, because they tend to be rather regular in composition. An allinurl: variation finds all the words listed in a URL but doesn’t mix well with some other special syntaxes.
Eg: allinurl:search help
intext, allintext
Searches only body text (i.e., ignores link text, URLs, and titles). There’s an allintext: variation, but again, this doesn’t play well with others. While its uses are limited, it’s perfect for finding query words that might be too common in URLs or link titles.
Eg: intext:"Google.com"
allintext:html
inanchor
Searches for text in a page’s link anchors. A link anchor is the descriptive text of a link. For example, the link anchor in the HTML code O’Reilly and Associates is “O’Reilly and Associates.”
Eg: inanchor:"tom peters"
site
Allows you to narrow your search by either a site or a top-level domain. AltaVista, for example, has two syntaxes for this function (host: and domain:), but Google has only the one.
Eg: site:loc.gov
link
Returns a list of pages linking to the specified URL. Enter link:www.google.com and you’ll be returned a list of pages that link to Google. Don’t worry about including the http:// bit; you don’t need it, and, indeed, Google appears to ignore it even if you do put it in. link: works just as well with “deep” URLs-http://www.raelity.org/apps/blosxom/ for instance-as with top-level URLs such as raelity.org.
Eg: link:www.google.com
cache
Finds a copy of the page that Google indexed even if that page is no longer available at its original URL or has since changed its content completely. This is particularly useful for pages that change often. If Google returns a result that appears to have little to do with your query, you’re almost sure to find what you’re looking for in the latest cached version of the page at Google.
Eg: cache:www.Rediff.com
filetype
Searches the suffixes or filename extensions. These are usually, but not necessarily, different file types. I like to make this distinction, because searching for filetype:htm and filetype:html will give you different result counts, even though they’re the same file type. You can even search for different page generators, such as ASP, PHP, CGI, and so forth-presuming the site isn’t hiding them behind redirection and proxying. Google indexes several different Microsoft formats, including: PowerPoint (PPT), Excel (XLS), and Word (DOC).
Eg: googleHelp filetype:pdf
related
Finds pages that are related to the specified page. Not all pages are related to other pages. This is a good way to find categories of pages; a search for related:google.com would return a variety of search engines, including HotBot, Yahoo!, and Northern Light.
Eg: related:www.yahoo.com
info
Provides a page of links to more information about a specified URL. Information includes a link to the URL’s cache, a list of pages that link to that URL, pages that are related to that URL, and pages that contain that URL. Note that this information is dependent on whether Google has indexed that URL or not. If Google hasn’t indexed that URL, information will obviously be more limited.
Eg: info:www.w3org.com
define
Will get the definition of the term that you have entered. This syntax can be used to get the definitions of words, phrases, and acronyms
Eg: define:search
This query will get you the definition of the word search
numrange
If you want to search for a range of numbers then you can use two dots (without spaces) to represent a range of numbers
Eg: inventions 1850..1899
This query will get you all the inventions between 1850 and 1899
safesearch
If you include safesearch: in your query, Google will exclude adult-content.
Eg: safesearch:breasts
This will search for information on breasts without returning adult or pornographic sites.
stocks
If you start your query with stocks:, Google will interpret the rest of the query terms as NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund stock ticker symbols, and will open a page showing stock information for the symbols you specify.
Eg: stocks:google
This will show information about Google’s stock. Specify ticker symbols not company names. If you enter an invalid ticker symbol, you’ll be told so and given a link to a page where you can look up a valid ticker symbol.
The Special Syntaxes
Currency Conversion
Google makes it easy to calculate money conversions from one form of currency to another.
If you’re not sure of the name of a currency, use nationality instead.
You can even convert units in this fashion.
Check Airfares
When you google for the names of two major cities, Google automatically offers to search for flights.
Find Song Lyrics
If you are looking for the title or lyrics of a song then you can use Google search phrases and wildcards to find them.
But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. We can Use these to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you're looking for, and quickly.
Basic Boolean
Whenever you search for more than one keyword at a time, Google will search for all of them. If you search for
XML "web Services Google will search for all the words. If you want to specify that either word is acceptable, you put an OR between each item
XML OR DOT NET OR "Web Services If you want to have definitely one term and one of two or more other terms, you group them with parentheses, like this
XML (DOTNET OR "Web Services") This query searches for the word “Java” or phrase “Web Services” along with the word “XML.” A stand-in for OR borrowed from the computer programming realm is the (pipe) character, as in
XML (DOTNET "Web Services") If you want to specify that a query item must not appear in your results, use a -.(minus sign or dash).
XML DOTNET -"Web Services" This will search for pages that contain both the words “XML” and “Java” but not the phrase “Web Services.”
Operators
In addition to the basic AND, OR, and quoted strings, Google offers some rather extensive special syntaxes for honing your searches. Google being a full-text search engine, it indexes entire web pages instead of just titles and descriptions. Additional commands, called special syntaxes, let Google users search specific parts of web pages or specific types of information. Specifying that your query words must appear only in the title or URL of a returned web page is a great way to have your results get very specific without making your keywords themselves too specific.
Here are some of the common keywords that you can add to your query in Google
intitle, allintitle
Restricts your search to the titles of web pages. The variation, allintitle: finds pages wherein all the words specified make up the title of the web page. It’s probably best to avoid the allintitle: variation, because it doesn’t mix well with some of the other syntaxes.
Eg: intitle:"george bush"
allintitle:"money supply" economics
inurl, allinurl
Restricts your search to the URLs of web pages. This syntax tends to work well for finding search and help pages, because they tend to be rather regular in composition. An allinurl: variation finds all the words listed in a URL but doesn’t mix well with some other special syntaxes.
Eg: allinurl:search help
intext, allintext
Searches only body text (i.e., ignores link text, URLs, and titles). There’s an allintext: variation, but again, this doesn’t play well with others. While its uses are limited, it’s perfect for finding query words that might be too common in URLs or link titles.
Eg: intext:"Google.com"
allintext:html
inanchor
Searches for text in a page’s link anchors. A link anchor is the descriptive text of a link. For example, the link anchor in the HTML code O’Reilly and Associates is “O’Reilly and Associates.”
Eg: inanchor:"tom peters"
site
Allows you to narrow your search by either a site or a top-level domain. AltaVista, for example, has two syntaxes for this function (host: and domain:), but Google has only the one.
Eg: site:loc.gov
link
Returns a list of pages linking to the specified URL. Enter link:www.google.com and you’ll be returned a list of pages that link to Google. Don’t worry about including the http:// bit; you don’t need it, and, indeed, Google appears to ignore it even if you do put it in. link: works just as well with “deep” URLs-http://www.raelity.org/apps/blosxom/ for instance-as with top-level URLs such as raelity.org.
Eg: link:www.google.com
cache
Finds a copy of the page that Google indexed even if that page is no longer available at its original URL or has since changed its content completely. This is particularly useful for pages that change often. If Google returns a result that appears to have little to do with your query, you’re almost sure to find what you’re looking for in the latest cached version of the page at Google.
Eg: cache:www.Rediff.com
filetype
Searches the suffixes or filename extensions. These are usually, but not necessarily, different file types. I like to make this distinction, because searching for filetype:htm and filetype:html will give you different result counts, even though they’re the same file type. You can even search for different page generators, such as ASP, PHP, CGI, and so forth-presuming the site isn’t hiding them behind redirection and proxying. Google indexes several different Microsoft formats, including: PowerPoint (PPT), Excel (XLS), and Word (DOC).
Eg: googleHelp filetype:pdf
related
Finds pages that are related to the specified page. Not all pages are related to other pages. This is a good way to find categories of pages; a search for related:google.com would return a variety of search engines, including HotBot, Yahoo!, and Northern Light.
Eg: related:www.yahoo.com
info
Provides a page of links to more information about a specified URL. Information includes a link to the URL’s cache, a list of pages that link to that URL, pages that are related to that URL, and pages that contain that URL. Note that this information is dependent on whether Google has indexed that URL or not. If Google hasn’t indexed that URL, information will obviously be more limited.
Eg: info:www.w3org.com
define
Will get the definition of the term that you have entered. This syntax can be used to get the definitions of words, phrases, and acronyms
Eg: define:search
This query will get you the definition of the word search
numrange
If you want to search for a range of numbers then you can use two dots (without spaces) to represent a range of numbers
Eg: inventions 1850..1899
This query will get you all the inventions between 1850 and 1899
safesearch
If you include safesearch: in your query, Google will exclude adult-content.
Eg: safesearch:breasts
This will search for information on breasts without returning adult or pornographic sites.
stocks
If you start your query with stocks:, Google will interpret the rest of the query terms as NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund stock ticker symbols, and will open a page showing stock information for the symbols you specify.
Eg: stocks:google
This will show information about Google’s stock. Specify ticker symbols not company names. If you enter an invalid ticker symbol, you’ll be told so and given a link to a page where you can look up a valid ticker symbol.
The Special Syntaxes
Currency Conversion
Google makes it easy to calculate money conversions from one form of currency to another.
If you’re not sure of the name of a currency, use nationality instead.
You can even convert units in this fashion.
Check Airfares
When you google for the names of two major cities, Google automatically offers to search for flights.
Find Song Lyrics
If you are looking for the title or lyrics of a song then you can use Google search phrases and wildcards to find them.
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