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How to 'really' search Google by George Leithead

I've used, implemented and developed on top of quite a few search engines over my time in 'cyber land'. Like most people (according to the latest stats), I currently use Google for 'most' of my Web searches. I always struggle to get out of the search engine exactly what I want. It's often very difficult to enter the right terms or narrow the results down enough. The answer to getting what you want out of a search engine is to learn how to use it's advanced features. I've listed below all of the advanced features that I use on Google below:


cache:: Show the cached snapshot of a page
For Example: Cache of www.internetwideworld.com

The cache is the search engine's copy of a page in its index. Google typically caches the first 101K of a page and not the images. The links to the caches are shown in Goggles search results and Page Info button on the Google tool bar can be used to access any cache available for the page.
link:: List pages which link to a page
For Example: Backlinks for www.internetwideworld.com

The term "backlinks" is used to describe those links from external sites which point to the page in question. These links are also known as "Inbound Links" or "IBLs". "Outbound Links" or "OBLs" are links from your site to other sites. The search engine optimisation world places great emphasis on increasing the number of backlinks a site enjoys because Google's conceptual model uses backlinks as votes. In general terms, a site with more backlinks is more of an authority than a site with fewer backlinks. Not all backlinks are of equal importance. In Google the phrase "B.O." is used for "Backlink Obsession" as a humorous reference for webmasters and optimisers who fixate on gaining links. Google's use of the link command omits the "http" protocol.
related:: List pages which Google consider to be related to another
For Example: Related links for www.internetwideworld.com

Related (or similar pages) are worked out by Google's algorithm. This search command allows you to find pages which discuss a similar topic to a page you have already found. For example, a review of Product X is likely to have related pages which also discuss Product X but may simply just be various reviews.
info:: Find one specific URL in the search database
For Example: Page info for www.internetwideworld.com

Presents limited information about a particular page in Google's index. Typically the command shows the page snippet and title as well as links to the cache or related pages. Typing a fully qualified URL into Google's search produces the same page.
define:: Show Google's glossary definitions for a term
For Example: Define SERPs

Google lists definitions of the keyword harvested from authoritative glossary-esq sites. The definitions are presented in a bullet point format with a link to the authoritative URL in green below. This results page differs from the links to Answers.com in the top right of many standard search result pages.
site:: Restrict a search to a single site
For Example: Site search for www.internetwideworld.com

The site: command can be used in two ways; to restrict a search to one site or to list all the pages Google has indexed from one site. For example, site:www.internetwideworld.com google searches InternetWideWorld.com for the word google and site:www.internetwideworld.com searches the site for any page and therefore lists them all. The site: command can either include or omit the 'www' in a domain, omitting the www will return all the sub-domains from the domain which Google has found.
allintitle:: Restrict a search so that all the keywords must appear in the title
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld blog in the title tag

This advanced search command restricts results to those pages which have all the keywords in their title tag. The title tag is the mark up to put contents into the bar at the top of the browser (typically blue in Windows XP). The title tag for this page is internetiwdeworld blog really google.
intitle:: Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
For Example: Search for pages which contain internetwideworld in the title and blog in the title or body tag

Returns pages which have some of the keywords in the title tag. This advanced search command differs from allintitle: in that only the keyword adjacent to intitle: is included in the title tag search.
allintext:: Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld blog google in their body text

Returns pages which have all of the keywords contained within the body tag. This advanced search ignores the title tag which normally has a non trivial significance in Google's algorithm.
allinurl:: Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the page address
For Example: Search for pages with internet and wide and world in their URL

A page's URL is its address. The URL of this page is blog.internetwideworld.com/. This advanced search command returns only those pages which have all the keywords in their URL.
inurl:: Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
For Example: Search for pages with internetwideworld, blog or both in their URL

Lists pages which have one or more of the keywords in their URL. The inurl: command can sometimes be used to restrict searches to specific sites and directories. For example: inurl:internetwideworld.com/blog/ board will return pages with 'internetwideworld.com/blog/' in their URL and board elsewhere on the page.
OR: List pages which have at least some of the keywords
For Example: Search for george OR leithead

By default Google searches for almost all the keywords entered (some words like a, the, of, etc are omitted). The OR command is placed between two or more keywords and instructs Google to return pages which contain one or another of the keywords.
+: Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
For Example: Search for george, leithead and internetwideworld

Google purposely omits some words from normal searches but the use of the + command instructs the search engine to include them. For example, Google would treat a search for george the great as a search for george great as the is ignored but the phrase george +the great would ensure the word the was included.
-: Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
For Example: Search for pages which match leithead but which do not mention george

The - command creates a negative keyword which must not be present on any page Google matches with the rest of the query. For example, football -American is likely to return pages about 'real' football (soccer to you damned Americans!).
~: Enhance a search to include synonyms for a given keyword
For Example: Search for leithead, developer and any synonyms for developer

The synonym search is more like an associated word search. With the ~ symbol present before a keyword Google will return pages which contain the keyword or pages which contain words commonly associated with the keyword. Google simply looks as frequencies across the internet to determine which words are associated with which. Words associated with developer are: software and design.
*: Include a wild card match in your search results
For Example: Search for george, [something] and leithead

The order of keywords in a Google search is significant. Adding the asterisk * as a wild card to the key phrase instructs Google that one or more other words should appear in that location.
[#]...[#]: Search a range of numbers as a keyword
For Example: Search for leithead and a number between 1973 and 2006

The [#] values are replaced with numbers to form a range. For example, 1973...2005. Google will search for pages which contain numbers matching the first, the last or any number in the middle of the sequence.
daterange:: Restrict a search to any daterange
For Example: Search for search on pages which were indexed between September 1, 2005 and September 24, 2005

The daterange command restricts Google's search to pages published between two dates. The date format used in the Julian calendar rather than the traditional Gregorian calendar.
"": Restrict a search so that the keywords must appear consecutively in a phrase
For Example: Search for "george leithead"

The order of keywords in a Google search is significant but not sacrosanct. Searching for george leithead returns pages which simply mention george and leithead. The search for "george leithead" returns different results as only pages which mention george leithead as a complete phrase are listed.
date:: Restrict a search to a recent time frame
For Example: Search for george and leithead on pages published in the last three months

The date: command is used to restrict searches to either 3, 6 or 12 month periods. Pages which qualify are those which have been published and found by Google in the time period. Pages without a last modified header may simply be qualified by the date Google found the page first.
safesearch:: Restrict a search to exclude adult-content For Example: Safe search for girls

The safesearch command mimics the effects of enabling SafeSearch on the Google preferences panel and excludes adult related content. Unlike other Google commands it is necessary to leave a space between safesearch: and the keyword as placing the keyword directly adjacent to the colon results in odd (often adult) results. For example, safesearch:girls (safesearch is off in this example).
filetype:: Restrict a search to a given type of file
For Example: Search for PDFs contain the word search

Google indexes more than just HTML pages. A wide range of different file types, including PDF and .doc files, are found in the search engine. The filetype command restricts searches to documents which match the filetype extension.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:24:16 PM UTC

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