DATE RANGES: You may limit your search to an exact date of a "range" of dates that a page was indexed by Google. To use Google's "daterange" function, you will need to express your dates in "Julian" dates. This date format is express as an integer. To convert a common date into Julian format go to: http://www.24hourtranslations.co.uk/dates.htm
As an example, if I wanted to find pages (about a certain topic) indexed by Google during the month of May 2003, I would type in:
"spyware removal" daterange: 2452774-2452803
TYPES OF FILES: You can limit your Google search results to specific files ending in a particular extension (.doc, .txt, .rtf, .pdf etc...)
To find a file on the topic "spyware remover" in Adobe (.pdf) format you would type in: "spyware remover" filetype:pdf
You can exclude certain types of files from your search by doing a "negative" search and placing a "minus" ( - ) sign in front of the "filetype:"
ANCHOR TEXT SEARCHES: Allow you to just search the "anchor" text in web page link anchors. Link anchors are the words that appear between: <.a href="yadayada.html">anti-spyware software<.a> In this case it's the phrase Anti-Spyware Software
PLAIN TEXT SEARCHES: By using Google's "intext" search capabilities, you can search JUST the body text of web pages and not any links, urls or titles, just the body. Simply type:
intext:"spyware remover"
CACHE SEARCHING: This form of searching will only search for results on sites that are stored in Google's "cache' or memory. This sometimes can give you older versions of sites. Example:
cache: spyware.pcwash.com
LINK SEARCHES: Want to know how many and what sites have links back to your site? Just search for your domain preceded by "link:"
link: spyware.pcwash.com
INFO SEARCHING: Find out what information Google has stored about a particular web page or site by searching:
info: spyware.pcwash.com
GOOGLE'S PHONEBOOK: Yes, Google has a phenomenal phone book database allowing you to search for both residential and business phone numbers. You may use the following search orders:
FN or FI (first name or first initial), LN (last name), city FN (FI), LN, state FN (FI), LN, area code FN (FI), LN, zip code phone # including area code (ex: 111-222-3333) LN, city, state LN, zip code
To find the phone number of the Whitehouse you would search:
phonebook: whitehouse washington dc
To find the phone number of the John Smith in Anytown, NY you could search:
phonebook: john smith ny
or
phonebook: smith anytown ny
or
phonebook: j smith ny
STOCK SEARCHING: Google can generate results on just about any stock because they use the stock information from the Yahoo! finance pages. For example:
stocks: ebay
Phew! Now, this list isn't even exhaustive, but it will give 99.99% of you enough information and insight to start REALLY tapping into the top ranked search engine in the world: Google.com Go have some fun!
Did you miss one of the previous search articles? Just go to: http://spyware.pcwash.com/articles_1.html
Google has some advanced search options which come in quite handy, depending on what items you may be searching.
TITLE SEARCH: Allows you to search for pages and sites that have specific words or phrases in their title. For example:
intitle: "spyware removal"
This search would only give you results of sites that have that particular phrase in their title.
SITE SEARCH: Gives you the opportunity to search pages ONLY within a specific site or domain (or using the "negative" results technique from Part One you can "exclude" results from a specific domain or site as well). For example:
"spyware remover" site:spyware.pcwash.com
This search would only provide results for the phrase "spyware remover" from the site: spyware.pcwash.com
URL SEARCHES: Allows you to search for pages or sites that have a specific word or phrase in their URL. For example:
inurl: "spyware removal"
This search would only give you a list of sites that have the exact phrase "spyware removal" in their URL.
To do a real power search, try combining a couple of the above techniques into one search like:
intitle: "spyware removal" -site: ebay.com
This search would give you results for your selected phrase, found in a tile, but not on ebay.com Neat, huh?
RELATED SEARCHES: Let's say you want to search for sites (competitors ? ) to a specific site. Once again we'll use our own site as an example: related: spyware.pcwash.com
This search will show sites that have related content and subject matter to the site which you typed into after "related:"
GOOGLE LIMITS: Google does have some limits and one of those is the actually number of keywords you can search on at the same time. That limit is (10). Type in anymore than (10) keywords and the subsequent words will not be included in your search and thus, are irrelevant.
Common words are ignored by Google such as: "a, about, an, and, are, as at, be, by, from, how, I, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the this, to, we, what, when, where, which, with".
You can override this limitation by putting a plus sign ( + ) in front of any of the above words when using them in a search phrase.
WILDCARDS: A wildcard search uses the asterisk sign ( * ) (the one above the #8 on your keyboard) to represent other non-specific characters or words. For example: "anti-spyware *" would turn up results for:
anti-spyware program anti-spyware software anti-spyware apps (and a few more).
You can use the wildcard symbol ( * ) and override the Google keyword limit and actually search for MORE than (10) keywords at a time because the ( * ) is not counted as a word.
Now, go practice on Google using these advanced tips and meet us back here next time for Part Three when we offer tips about some MORE "advanced" and "juicier" features you can use to get the most out of your searches on the world's most frequently used search engine: Google.com
Andrew Wroblewski has sinced written about articles on various topics from Advertising Guide, Kitchen Home Improvement and Family. When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his and. Andrew Wroblewski's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.