Tips on Google To Narrow Your Search

Google is definitely the most powerful search engine around the globe. And we believed that don't need to explain more about it. So let the post begin.

Or you can go straight to : The Most Frequently Used Modifiers and Operators.

Phrase searches

Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.

Example : "the long and winding road"

Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("George Washington"), lyrics("the long and winding road"), or other famous phrases ("This was their finest hour").

Negative terms

If your search term has more than one meaning (bass, for example, could refer to fishing or music) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.

For example, here's how you'd find pages about bass-heavy lakes, but not bass-heavy music:

bass -music

Note: when you include a negative term in your search, be sure to include a space before the minus sign.



Advanced Operators

cache:

If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page. The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.

link:

The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url.

related:

The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url.

info:

The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.

Other Information Need

define:		The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).
stocks:		If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.) This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.

Query Modifiers

site:		If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain.
allintitle:		If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title.
intitle:		If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
allinurl:		If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url. Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
inurl:		If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word. Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].

Related Articles : http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

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The Most Frequently Used Modifiers & Operators

So here they are The Most Frequently Used Modifiers & Operators in Google. In case that the above article is too long and complicated. Yeah, I pretty much does not like a long article also.

Please note that there should not be any space on either side of colon [:], also all search modifier and operator are case-sensitive! The format should be like this :

operator:parameter

site: This operator is useful for searching a site and/or its subdomain.

* site:devilsworkshop.org will restrict search to all subdomain under devilsworkshop.org
* site:edu will search all site in edu top domain. Useful for researchers and college students while studying and writing for papers as site:edu will restrict search results to the educational sites!

filetype: You can directly use Google to search any type of files.

* filetype:ppt to search all PowerPoint presentation slides.
* filetype:pdf will search only pdf files! Good for searching ebooks.
* filetype:pdf site:edu will return all files with pdf extensions from edu domain. Useful to complete journals or study assignments!

inurl: To search something in URLs

* inurl:md5 will find keyword md5 in URLs.
* inurl:md5 filetype:java will return all java source files with md5 in their name or URL. How about using this to complete programming assignments in college!
Also try allinurl: operator which looks all keywords into URL only!

intitle: To search something in page title. Useful when searching a too common word.

* intitle:md5 will return all documents having md5 in their title.
* intitle:Hacking filetype:pdf will return all pdf files i.e. mostly ebooks and papers about hacking.

Also try allintitle: operator which looks all keywords into title only!

define: To use Google search as dictionary. There are other dedicated dictionary services but none of them is as clean and fast as Google.

* define:hacker will show meanings of hacker.
* define:network security will return meaning of network security.
* Note: Do not type anything before define: or combine it with other operators!

OR - To combine results of multiple searches! By default Google performs ANDing on keywords we use while searching. But sometimes explicit OR can help more.

* filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc will search for pdf as well as doc files. This will help you complete your journals
* site:en.wikipedia.org OR site:howstuffworks.com will restrict search to Wikipedia English and How Stuff Works site!
* Note OR must be in capital and it doesn’t have colon after it!

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