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
