Google Maximization Thread

Few if any of us, use search engines, namely Google, to their full potential. I'm starting this thread so that we can gather a list of all the most useful, yet least known Google operators that will make searching for stuff a whole lot easier. I've just bought the book "Google Hacks", it's not hear yet, but I've been reading some articles on the book and decided to share a few of them with you guys.

If this is in the wrong forum, sorry for posting this. I think this information still needs to be out there.

I also want to ask that people who participate in this thread to limit their contributions to Google operators and functions as that is the most widely used and usefull engine out there atm. Here are a few I'm sure many others have used before but I've just found out about and I'm sure more then a few will find them useful as well.

If you want to search for an exact phrase, just enter in your search term like this:

"search term here"

This will only return results which have that exact phrase on the page.

The next one I use all the time, yet I'm not sure how many people know about it, and still use Dictionary.com

The Define feature not only lets you search dictionary sites, it also lists jargon and their definitions.

Here is how you can define a word in Google.

define:definition

The last one I found infinately usefull, but just found out about today is the synonym search. All you do is this:

~synonym

You add the tilde(~) in front of the search term. Say you put in a search for Cows, it will return synonyms of Cows along with the original search term.

For making sure an extra keyword is included or left out of the results just do this:

-LeaveOutOfSearch

+IncludeInSearch

A common way to use this function is like this:

"search term here" -yahoo +google

This search term will make sure the exact phrase within the quotes is presant on the page as well as omitting any pages with the word "-yahoo" and omitting any pages without the word "+google"

I hope this was some help and I hope this is not a repeat. I'll be adding in more as I learn more operators and functions when the book arrives. Anyone else interested in adding to this, please feel free.

[Admin Edit] Removed the "H" word from the title. We don't promote that word or activity on ATS

[edit on 4-1-2006 by Springer]

sardion2000, thanks man

I thought I was hot stuff with the "exact phrase" search....I had no idea of the other search options.

Very informative thread.

Later

great tips but I don't think the name of the thread is appropriate, might suggest "illegal" activity. How about calling it Google Quick Cheats or something else along those lines.

btw, I thought I was hot stuff with "exact phrase"

Great idea. I've got some inkling of the potential of googling but never had a good resource to refer to.

'Hacks' is good. In the computer world, a hack is a clever workaround or trick to get a computer or software to do its job better. 'Crackers' are the nasty ba****ds.

NC

[edit on 31-3-2006 by NotClever]

Originally posted by worldwatcher
great tips

but I don't think the name of the thread is appropriate, might suggest "illegal" activity. How about calling it Google Quick Cheats or something else along those lines.

btw, I thought I was hot stuff with "exact phrase"

Hacks is the correct term. The true meaning of the word is to make a product do something that it wasn't designed to/not advertised for that particular purpose. The computer, as it basically stands right now, wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't for the basement and garage Hackers.

The term Cracking/Cracker implies that you have malicious intent with your tinkering(eg Trying to turn an ipod into a credit card scanner, Caller ID spoofer, etc.)

Also the name of the book is called Google Hacks.

Originally posted by NotClever
Great idea. I've got some inkling of the potential of googling but never had a good resource to refer to.

'Hacks' is good. In the computer world, a hack is a clever workaround or trick to get a computer or software to do its job better. 'Crackers' are the nasty ba****ds.

NC

[edit on 31-3-2006 by NotClever]

If you like this thread, buy the book or get it from your local public library.

www.oreilly.com...



[edit on 31-3-2006 by sardion2000]

That synonym thing could be very useful; I had no idea Google offered such a feature.

Thanks a lot, Sardion, I will make good use of this.

thanks for the info guys, remember I thought I was da bomb cause I knew "exact phrase"

hack it is then.

kewl, the synonym was new for me too.. now I can do 4 years of searching all over again...

the + and - have been around.. on other eninges too.

Okay now on to something a bit more advanced. The Google Calculator. I'm not really sure of all the ins and outs of this feature, but it sure is usefull.

Try typing in this:

160 pounds * 4000 feet in Calories

or

half a cup in teaspoons

It doesn't always work for me, but I've been able to make some useful calculations with this feature. It seems to be still in "beta" as I don't always get what I want Maybe it's just me

[edit on 31-3-2006 by sardion2000]

One of my favorites is the Google result for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything".

Those wacky techs... what will they think of next.

Originally posted by The Parallelogram
One of my favorites is the Google result for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything".

Those wacky techs... what will they think of next.

HAHA! I didn't know that one. Thx.

Do a search for jew, and check out the first link and explanation...

Just something I remember hearing about....

Later


[edit on 31/3/2006 by SportyMB]

www.google.com...

It's good that they at least attempted to explain why you're seeing what you're seeing on the first page results.

Okay we seem to be getting a bit off topic here. I mostly want to concentrate on general functions rather than explicit terms. I'll be returning tomarrow if I remember anything, or if I don't then I'll return to this thread when the book arrives.

Later people.

If any of you want to learn Google "syntax" more deeply go to

johnny.ihackstuff.com...


Crustas

Knew about most of them, except the Synonyms. Saw that today on Digg and will be using it help searching for things i can't remember EXACTLY.

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
Knew about most of them, except the Synonyms. Saw that today on Digg and will be using it help searching for things i can't remember EXACTLY.

care to add any more that I've missed? I've missed quite a few, of that I'm sure of.

If you type in something like: homer pics , it will show you a few pictures at the top of homer simpson.

[edit on 31-3-2006 by Toadmund]

You can use an asterisk (*) as a replacement of any word, like who wants to be a * will return better results than without the asterisk.

site

OMAIN (no space) just searches that domain.
intitle:WORD (no space) searches page titles for that word
filetype:TYPE (no space) searches for that file type, obviously
cache:URL (no space) ..finds a cache of the page, of course

Basically all I know about.

[edit on 3-31-2006 by dreamlandmafia]

[edit on 3-31-2006 by dreamlandmafia]

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
You can use an asterisk (*) as a replacement of any word, like who wants to be a * will return better results than without the asterisk.

site

OMAIN (no space) just searches that domain.
intitle:WORD (no space) searches page titles for that word
filetype:TYPE (no space) searches for that file type, obviously
cache:URL (no space) ..finds a cache of the page, of course

Basically all I know about.

Let me just extend that with proper syntax.

"aliens are here" -roswell site:www.abovetopsecret.com
just searches the site you want to search.

who wants * be
not exactly sure how this works.

and so on...

[edit on 31-3-2006 by sardion2000]

[edit on 31-3-2006 by sardion2000]

I have the Google Hacks book -- you learn all sorts of interesting tricks there. If you're in school, try them on scholar.google.com... -- saves you TONS of trouble when looking up papers.