In my last session, "10 Life changing websites and RSS feeds", I discussed the power of information and how it is now possible to get the most relevant information within the shortest period possible. I would like to extend that same concept by explaining some very useful yet lesser known Google operators. These ten search operators, when used in the right manner, will enable you to declutter and sort the countless web pages which show up on your search results page.
intitle
If you want to search for something and you know that it would be in the title then you can use this field. Just enter in the title: ”your search item” into Google and hit enter. It will return the search results with the search word on the title of the page. Suppose you want to search for rules for Google search and you vaguely remember some article you once read called golden rules of google searching. You can give your search query as:
intitle:Golden Rules of Google searching
If you put your search words in quotes then Google will treat it as a single word and you will get much better search results:
intitle:”Golden Rules of Google searching”
inurl
Searches can be done for urls using this following operator. If you want to find the search string in the URL of the website, then you enter something like:
inurl:golden.rules.of.google
Please note here that I have put “.” in between the words. “.” This period acts as a wild card and can replace any other symbol such as a hyphen or an underscore. This search will in turn bring all the pages which have both: golden-rules-of-google and golden_rules_of_google.
filetype
This is my favorite operator. Using this, you can search for a specific file type in the internet. Suppose you want to search for a document for linux and you only desire PDF file types. The query you should enter into Google is as follows:
filetype:pdf linux
If you want to search for mp3 music to download, type filetype:mp3 and the artist name followed by that. This search will fetch you any such mp3 file in the pages which Google has crawled.
link
The Link operator is another very useful tool. It is used to find the webpages which have a link to a specific URL. Suppose I have a blog and I want to find out how many pages link to this page. All I need to do in this case is use the link operator. Please note that unlike other operators, we are not going to give a search word for this operator. Instead we are going to give a full URL, something which looks like this:
link:http://www.xxxxx.com
This will give you an indication as to the popularity of the page.
inanchor
The inanchor operator is similar to the URL operator, but it is used to help you find the text which is included inside an anchor or a link. For example, if you want to find out all anchors which have the know-how to do speed squaring using vedic mathematics, then you should type:
inanchor:"Speed Squaring using Vedic mathematics"
This will locate all the anchors that have got a link built up under that phrase.
daterange
Daterange will search for pages which were published between the specified two dates. This comes handy when we have to find out pages which are more recent, but it is more difficult than you might think. The catch here is that we have to pass the dates in Julian format. The julian date is the number of days passed after January 1st 4713 BC. For example, the date September 11, 2001, is represented in Julian terms as 2452164. So, to search for pages that were indexed by Google on September 11, 2001, and contained the word “crash” the query would be:
daterange:2452164 - 2452164 “crash”
This will report all those pages Google crawled in that time frame which had the word crash in it.
related
This is a superb operator which is quite fun to use. Suppose you discovered a very useful website, for example: Dictionary and you are wondering what other sites might be used as an alternative for this one. In short, you need to find out all those sites which are similar to dictionary.com. You can do just that using the related operator. I am going to show you the sites which are related to Google . For that, I am going to write the below query in google:
related:www.google.com
Just have a look which one comes first in the list.
phonebook
There are many operators which I discussed earlier which can be used for evil purposes. I did not cover those operations as I did not want anyone to get into any trouble. This is one such thing. I am covering this because there is a workaround for the problem. The phone book operator can be used to find both the official and residential phone numbers of people. Three operators can be used for the phonebook search: rphonebook, bphonebook and phonebook, which will search residential listings, business listings, or both, respectively. A query such as:
phonebook:abc def ny
would list both business and residential listings for abc def in New York. If you're concerned about your address information being in Google's databases for the world to see, have no fear. Google makes it possible for you to delete your information so others can't access it via Google. Fill out the form at www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html and your information will be removed, usually within 48 hours.
insubject
This nifty little operator will allow you to search google groups by the subject line. Suppose you are facing some problem with the Windows XP startup and you want to see the threads in Google groups which have discussed it. All you need to do is type in:
insubject:”windows xp startup”
and Bingo, all that information will be presented in front of you. Please make sure that you are inside the google groups search page before attempting this query, otherwise it might not work correctly.
define
This operator can be used if you don't have any dictionary at your disposal and you want to quickly decipher some professional jargon or find the meaning of a rather difficult word that you have never heard before. How about the word abracadabra? Have no fear, just go to Google and type in:
define:abracadabra
And there you are, Google comes up with all the definitions it can find, selected just for you.
