GoogleWidgets

Basic Search Tips !

2010-12-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

Basics

[blue widgets] Finds pages with the words blue and/or widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. Words may not be near each other (this is known as proximity).
["blue widgets"] Finds pages with the words blue and widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. The words must be next to each other and in the exact same order. This type of query is known as an exact phrase match.
[blue or widgets] Finds pages with the words blue or widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page.
[blue and widgets] Finds pages with the words blue and widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. Both words must occur in one of the cases, but can occur in any order.
[blue -widgets] Finds pages with the words blue on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. The page, title and anchor text must not have the word widgets in them It’s very important that the minus sign [-] be next to the word without a space. This is known as a negative search term.
[blue ~widgets] Finds pages with the word blue on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. It also returns documents with synonyms for the word next to the tilde [~] (in this case widgets) on the page, in the title or in the anchor text to the page.
[define: blue] This will give you definitions for the word [blue] and links to pages with definitions.

Compound Searches

Using logical operators like [and] and [or] we can create complex searches. We can create extremely complex searches by combining logical operators using parenthesis. These complex searches can also be combines with ["] and [-] as well.

[widgets (red OR blue)] Finds pages with the words widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. The words blue or red must be on the page, in the title or in the anchor text used to link to the page.
[widgets (red AND blue)] Finds pages with the word widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. The words blue and red must be on the page, in the title or in the anchor text used to link to the page.
[widgets (red AND blue) -green] Finds pages with the word widgets on them, in the title, or used in the anchor text to link the page. The words blue and red must be on the page, in the title or in the anchor text used to link to the page. The word green must not be on the page, in the title or in the anchor text used to link to the page.

Lets say you wanted to do a search for people who haven’t posted or updated their blog in a while, here’s how you would create that query ["haven't (updated OR posted)" and blog]

Search Modifiers

Google has a series of search modifiers that allow you to perform very specific searches, these include [inanchor], [intext], [intitle], and [inurl]. In addition you can also add the word [all] in front of each term to include all of the words in the phrase. These modifiers can also be combined with the ["] , [-], and logical operators and be used to create complex queries.

[inanchor:blue widgets] Returns pages where the words blue is used by other pages or websites to link to the page, and have the word widgets on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text used to link to the page.
[allinanchor:blue widgets] Returns pages where the words blue and widgets are used by other pages or websites to link to the page.
[intitle:blue widgets]Returns pages where the word blue is used in the title, and the word widgets is on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text used to link to the page.
[allintitle:blue widgets]Returns pages with the words blue and widgets are in the title.
[inurl:blue widgets]Returns pages where the word blue is used in the URL, and the word widgets is on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text used to link to the page.
[allinurl:blue widgets]Returns pages with the words blue and widgets are in the URL.

Lets say you were looking for pages about cookbooks where people used the words celebrity to link to them here is a query you might construct [cookbooks inanchor:celebrity]
Lets refine that query taking out all the bad, horrible, and terrible cookbooks with this query [cookbooks -bad -horrible -terrible inanchor:celebrity]
Now lets refine it once more to find only cookbooks with recipes from your favorite movie star Alicia Silverstone in them [cookbooks "alicia silverstone" -bad -horrible -terrible inanchor:celebrity]

Restrictive Searches

Google also has restrictive searches that allow you to limit the sites or information that you are searching for.

[soccer site:whitehouse.gov] Will return only documents from the site whitehouse.gov with the word soccer on the page, in the title or in the anchor text that links to the page.
[intitle:soccer site:whitehouse.gov] Will return only documents from the site whitehouse.gov with the word soccer in the title.
[ipod $100..$150] Will return pages with the word IPod on the page, in the title, or anchor text linking to the page, and with dollar amounts between $100 and $150 on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text linking to the web page.
[ipod $100..$150 "in stock"] Will return pages with the word IPod, and “in and stock” on the page, in the title, or anchor text linking to the page, and with dollar amounts between $100 and $150 on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text linking to the web page.
[ipod $100..$150 "in stock" -shuffle (green OR blue)] Will return pages with the word IPod, and “in and stock” on the page, in the title, or anchor text linking to the page, and with dollar amounts between $100 and $150 on the page, in the title, or in the anchor text linking to the web page. The word shuffle must not be on the page, in the title or anchor text, and the page, title or anchor text must contain either the word green or blue.
[telescope filetype:pdf] Will return only PDF files with the word telescope on the document, in the title or in the anchor text to the document. Filetypes can be any of the following: Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf), Adobe PostScript (ps), Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku), Lotus WordPro (lwp), MacWrite (mw), Microsoft Excel (xls), Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt), Microsoft Word (doc), Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb), Microsoft Write (wri), Rich Text Format (rtf), Shockwave Flash (swf), Text (ans, txt).
[telescope filetype:pdf intitle:dobsonian 2004..2005] Will return only PDF files with the word telescope on the document, in the title or in the anchor text to the document. The title must contain the word Dobsonian and the document will contain numbers from 2004 through 2005.
[link:whitehouse.gov] Provides a completely random sampling of some sites that link to whitehouse.gov. There is no logic or reason to the sites displayed or the order they are displayed in. Many sites that link to you will not be displayed. This search is considered “broken”.
[info:whitehouse.gov]Provides links to information and searches about the website whitehouse.gov.
[cache:whitehouse.gov] Displays a copy of the page stored on Google’s server. This may vary from the actual page on the website.

Specialized Searches

Google has a number of specialized searches that search through a small subset of data for highly relevant results.

[phonebook: gibson NY] Will return a sampling of business and residential listings with the word gibson in the name, town or street that are in New York.
[bphonebook: gibson NY]Will return a business listings with the word gibson in the name, town or street that are in New York.
[rphonebook: gibson NY]Will return a residential listings with the word gibson in the name that are in New York.
[movie:Goblet of Fire] Will return pages about the Goblet of Fire, contain the words Goblet of Fire . Has links to reviews about the Goblet of Fire and movie show times.
[movie: flux capacitor] Will return pages about movies with the words flux capacitor on them.
[stocks:goog] Will return information about the stock with the symbol GOOG.
[weather las vegas NV] Will give the local weather for Las Vegas Nevada.
[fly JFK LAX] Links to flight information from JFK airport to LAX airport.
[fly new york to los angeles] Link to flight information from New York to Los Angeles
[jetblue 189] Provides a direct link to the status of Jet Blue Airlines flight 189.
[frank zappa] Links to More information about Frank Zappa, albums, and other information. This is sometimes hit or miss depending on the artist.
[related:whitehouse.gov] Returns links to other pages that are about similar topics or information. Some of these sites will have links that exist between them others will not. In some cases this may show direct competition, for example [related:walmart.com]
[1600 Pennsylvania avenue washington dc] This is an address search and provides a direct link to Google Map for the address.

Fact Searches

This category provides you with immediate answers to a specific narrow set of questions. It’s a bit of hit or miss here but here are some examples.

[gdp malta] Gross Domestic Product of Malta
[population malta] Population of Malta.
[capital malta] The capital of Malta.
[location malta] Rough idea of where Malta is located.
[currency malta] What is the currency of Malta.
[flag france] The flag of France. Note there was no flag shown for Malta.
[anthem france] What is the national anthem of France.
[state bird hawaii] What is the state bird of Hawaii.
[state flower hawaii] State flower of Hawaii.
[motto hawaii] what is the state motto of Hawaii.
[size hawaii]
[governor hawaii] The governor of Hawaii.
[birthplace of walt disney] Where Walt Disney was born.

Math and Number Searches

[100+37+92+641-7] Works like a calculator to perform math operations.
[how many teaspoons in a tablespoon] Provides the answer to measurement conversions.
[convert 300 yen to dollars] Provides currency conversion
[1Z9999W99999999999] Provides a link to UPS tracking information.
[790187289080] Provides a link to Fed Ex tracking information.
[0103 8555 7493 2721 4413] Provides a link to USPS tracking information.
[1HD1BEK11BY123456]Provides a link to VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) information.
[073333531084]Provides a link to UPC information for that product.
[212] Provides a link to information about the area code 212.
[202-456-1111]Provides a link to more information about the residence, business, or organization for that phone number.
[patent 5123128]Provides a link to more information about patent number 5123128.
[n199ud] Provides a link for more information about the FAA registration for the airplane with that registration number.
[fcc IHDT5ZG1]Provides a link to information about the product with that FCC id number.

Footnotes

In some rare cases you may find that the word or phrase you searched for is neither on the page or in the title. For example [miserable failure] returns the biography of George W. Bush. This is the result of group of highly motivated people attempting to influence the search engine algorithms with a practice known as Googlebombing.
Anchor text is the hyperlinked or click able words that bring you to another page or website.

GoogleNews

2010-03-06T16:13:00.001-08:00

GoogleBlogs

2008-09-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

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GoogleNews

2008-08-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

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GoogleMiniWeb

2008-07-31T04:10:00.001-07:00

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GoogleWidgets

2008-07-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

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GoogleNewsTicker

2008-07-27T02:25:00.001-07:00

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GoogleDesktop

2008-02-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

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GoogleHomepage - 02

2008-02-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

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GoogleHomepage - 01

2008-02-18T15:51:00.001-08:00

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GoogleSearch

2008-02-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

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GoogleMiniSearch

2008-02-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

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GoogleTools

2008-02-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Google indexes and searches billions of webpages and is the premier search engine on the internet. A quick analysis of the search page is helpful to understand and analyze the search results. Learn the essentials of Google Search and remember to set your preferences.

Official Google Search Tools

Google - The Search Engine.

Google Advanced Search - search google based on specific parameters

Google Suggest - As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you’re typing and offers suggestions in real time.

Google Trends - Graphically see and compare what the world is searching for.

Google Personalized Search - make your search experience more relevant to you.

Google Search History - Keeps a record of all searches and clicked results while a user is logged into a Google Account

Google Blog search - Google search technology focused on blogs

Blogger Blog Search - Search for blogs all over the web

Google Directory - Search the web organized by topic into categories.

Google Alerts - sends emails automatically when there are new Google results for your search terms.

Special Searches

Google Video - Search TV programs and videos

Google Image Search - comprehensive image search on the web

Google Music Search - search for music

Google Book Search - Search the full text of books (and discover new ones).

Google Catalogs - helps you browse and search merchant-provided catalogs

Froogle - Google’s shopping search engine

Google News - Search and browse 4,500 news sources

Google News archive search - provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives.

Google Scholar - search for the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

Google Patent Search - find the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you.

Google Maps - View maps, get driving directions, and search for local businesses and services.

Google Public Service Search - offers educational institutions and non-profit organizations worldwide free SiteSearch, which enables users to search your website, and free WebSearch, which enables users to search the Internet.

Google’s University Search - enables you to narrow your search to a specific school website for things like admissions information, course schedules, or alumni news.

Google Ride Finder - view taxi or shuttle locations in several cities.

Google Base - submit all types of online and offline content that is hosted and made searchable online.

Google Topic Specific Search

Google’s Special Searches - enable you to narrow your search to a specific topic.

Google Apple/Macintosh Search - Search for Apple/Macintosh-related sites using Google

Google Microsoft Search - Search Microsoft-related sites using Google

Google Linux Search - Search all penguin-friendly pages

Google U.S. Government Search - Search all .gov and .mil sites

BSD Unix - Search web pages about the BSD operating system

Google For Webmasters

Google AdSense for search - Opportunity to earn money by Google whenever your users click on the targeted Google adsense ads on search results pages.

Google Free - provide Google search results to users who want to search the web or just your website.

Google Custom Search Engine - Specify the websites that you want searched and integrate the search box and results into your own website.

Site-flavored Google search - delivers web search results that are customized to individual websites.

Customizable Google Search - you can customize your results display to include background, text and link colors you select.

Google Search Appliance - is a hardware and software product designed to offer large businesses the productivity-enhancing power of Google search.

Google Mini – Google search for your website and intranet

Google Desktop Search Tools

Google Deskbar - Search using Google without opening your browser

Google Desktop - a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you’ve viewed.

Google Mobile Search Services

Google SMS - Send a text message wiht your search query, and receive text message with search results

Google SMS UK - enables you to send queries as text messages from your mobile phone or device and easily get precise answers to your questions.

Google Mobile : Web Search - Google Web Search results on your phone or mobile device

Google Mobile : Mobile Web Search - search for sites that have already been designed to fit the screen of your phone or device

Google Mobile : Image Search - Google Image Search results on your phone or mobile device

Google Mobile : Local Search - get local listings, maps and driving directions on your mobile phone or device

Google Search Toolbars

Google Toolbar - Add a search box to your browser

Google Toolbar Beta - Test the latest version on IE.

Google Toolbar for Firefox - Add a search box to your browser

Google Toolbar for Enterprise - provides powerful productivity features including easy access to Google, customized search buttons, instant search suggestions, and a pop-up blocker.

Google Browser Buttons - add to a personal toolbar giving you access to Google search technology without taking up extra screen space.

Third Party Google Search Tools

Search Google with Firefox Extensions

CustomizeGoogle - enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).

Googlebar Lite - A light-weight Google search toolbar for Firefox.

GoogleTabs - Adds a context menu option to open Google search results in tabs.

Advanced Dork - Highlight a word or phrase, right click, and choose from over 15 Advanced Google Operators, A google search page is opened in either the same tab or a new tab, the results contained in the search will contain the highlighted text inside the chosen Operator.

GooglePreview - Inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites and Amazon products into the Google and Yahoo search results pages.

Feeling Lucky - Performs Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search with any selected text and opens the result in new a tab.

Aggregate Yahoo! and Google - Search Yahoo and Google simultaneously

GooglebarL10N - is the localized version of Googlebar with Menues & Texts in German, Italian or Spanish.

Google Advanced Operations Toolbar - provides a shortcut to some of Google’s advanced search functions.

Google Page or Sites Modules / Scripts / Widgets / Bookmarklets

Search History - View your search history. Google Personal Module.

Random Site Image - Displays a random image from a given website (via Google Images site search). Google Personal Module.

Google Search Greasemonkey Scripts - use the power of greasemonkey to modify the web.

Google Search Yahoo Widgets - collection of Google search widgets in various formats

Milly’s Bookmarklets - Bookmarklets that use the Google search engine to search for stuff.

Multi Search Tools

Simply Google - search all Google services on one page. Lots of forms.

HotDaddy - search all Google services on one page. Lots of icons.

Google Total - search all Google services on one page. Drop down menu.

GahooYoogle - search multiple Google and Yahoo services together side by side.

Twingine - Google and Yahoo search side by side.

Soople - performs all advanced search functions of google in separate forms

Miscellaneous Google Search Tools

Google Cloud - displays search results as a tag cloud

Babelplex - enables users to search Google’s web index across two languages.

Google Current - airs every half hour on Current TV and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google.

Googlewhack - a query consisting of two words (without quotation marks) entered into Google’s search page that returns a single result.

Cookin’ With Google - allows you to provide a list of ingredients and get back a list of recipes that Google finds for you.

Goofresh - is a way to search for sites added today, yesterday, within the last seven days, or last 30 days.

Google Fight - Compare the number of results for two competing keywords.

GoogleDuel - a popularity contest using the Google search engine.

Random Web Search - it generates a random word, then searches that word on the web using Google.

Googlematic - Enables searching of Google via AIM or MSN Messenger.

Googlism - will find out what Google.com thinks of you

Google Tool - Search multiple google datacenters simultaneously.

elgooG - a mirror image of Google

LostGoggles - adds search site preview images, Amazon pricing, site info links and the Open-in-New-Window-button. Formerly “More Google”.

In the end, this amazing list of Google Web Search Features lists the many special features to help you to find exactly what you’re looking for. Google Zeitgeist lists the current Google Search patterns, trends, and surprises.