Knowledgebase Using the Search Engines

Google Search Commands - Life Saving Search Tips

Many people don't realize that much of the time that they waste searching Google can be avoided. If we refine what we type into the Google search field using certain Google search commands, we can narrow our search to such a degree that we may just find our answer right at the top of the first search results page. Sometimes, we don't even need to visit a single web site. For example, try typing 'weather: New York' into the Google search box (or replace New York with your hometown).

weather: New York, NY
(It may be necessary to include the two-letter state abbreviation after the city.)

Easy Google Search Modifications:

• Quotation Marks " "
  Use of quotation marks in a Google search tells Google to look for the specific phrase contained within the quotation marks. For example, let's search "Nintendo Wii online play" Mario. Notice that you don't have to include your entire search string in quotes. By putting the name Mario outside of the quotation marks, I am not requiring it to be part of the specific phrase. I am only requiring that the phrase and the name Mario exist somewhere in the page's content. Try putting Mario inside the quotation marks. What happens?



• Avoid unwanted words with a -
  Put a minus sign ("-") in front of words you want to avoid. This Google command can help for words with multiple meanings. For example, searching bat -baseball will help me to return results on the nocturnal animal and not on a piece of baseball equipment. This is because we are telling the search engine that we want to avoid the word 'baseball'.



• Include Synonyms with ~
  Often, several different word choices may return your desired results from a search. Searching with the syntax ~food ~facts indicates that you want to include in your search results synonyms of the words 'food' and 'facts'. For example, your results may contain the word 'nutrition' instead of 'food', as they are synonyms.

Google Search Commands:

• weather:
  Use the Google weather command (as shown above) to find the weather forecast for a particular city. For example, weather: Pittsburgh, Pa



• phonebook:
  The phonebook syntax will look up residential phone numbers corresponding to the name and the specified area. For example, try performing the search
  phonebook: Mike, Smith, New York. Google recommends using the syntax structure: first name, last name, area (where area is either the city, state, area code, or zip code). Notice that the first and last name are separated by a comma, although leaving one out usually works too.



• define: word
  Need to find a definition fast. Use the Google search operator 'define:' to return a list of definitions that Google finds on the web. Once again, the list of definitions is displayed directly to the page that follows your search. For example, let's try the search command define: diabetes



• filetype:
  This command is used to restrict your web search to specific file types. For example, form 1040 filetype:pdf will look for the phrase 'form 1040' in only pdf files. For more help on searching a specific file type, go to the filetype search FAQ page.



• movie: title
  The Google movie command operator will return a list of reviews the first time you use it. However, after entering your location on subsequent pages, Google can use a cookie to remember where you are in order to return showtimes each time that you use the 'movie:' operator. For example, try movie: Happy Feet

Google Search Computations:

• Stock and Mutual Fund Quotes
  Simply enter your stock's ticker symbol into the Google search box. For example, let's get Google's stock quote using the company's stock symbol GOOG. We see a display that links to Google Finance followed by a list of search results based on popularity.



• Calculator
  Not enough light to power your old solar calculator? Google search commands have got you covered. Just enter your mathematical computation into the search box. Available arithmetic operators include + – * / for basic computations. Use the command '% of' to discover, for example, 45% of 60. More examples of operations include:
  
  
  • 2^16
  • sqrt(-4)
  • half a cup in teaspoons


• Currency Conversion
  Need to figure out how much your two bucks will get you in Canada or perhaps Germany. Google currency conversion is fairly intuitive and easy to use. Here are some example queries.
  
  
  • 3.5 USD in GBP
  • currency of Brazil in Malaysian money
  • 5 British pounds in South Korean money
  • 2.2 USD per gallon in INR per litre

Webmaster Essential Google Search Commands:

• link:
  Use the Google search command link: to find out how many web pages online link to your web site. For example, typing link:www.searchengineknowledge.com into the Google search bar will tell me which web pages contain links to my web site.



• site:
  Using the site: command will restrict your search results to the website that you specify. For example, movies site:www.campushopper.com will search only the web site Campushopper.com for the term 'movies'. Webmasters can use the site: command with an html form to create a search engine for their website. An even easier way to add a search engine to your web site is to use Google Site Flavored Search, which requires almost no html coding knowledge. If you want Google Adsense links to appear in your site's search results then check out Adsense for Search at Google.



• Include Synonyms with ~
  Often, several different word choices may return your desired results from a search. Searching with the syntax ~food ~facts indicates that you want to include in your search results synonyms of the words 'food' and 'facts'. For example, your results may contain the word 'nutrition' instead of 'food', as they are synonyms.

Where can I find more information on searching Google?

There are a handful of other Google search commands that are available. We picked what we felt were some of the most useful ones. However, you may want to check out Google's Search Guide for more search commands not covered here.