An introduction to search commands
Did you know you can search Google for web pages which were published in a certain timeframe? Did you know it often better to use Yahoo to work out your back links as you can exclude your own internal links?
In Yahoo it is possible to restrict your search to pages which have meta tags or which are in the Mediterranean (the coast, one assumes, rather than the sea). On Live search you can look for pages which contain RSS.
The
Search Commands* home page shows summary search commands for:
Google,
Yahoo and
Live Search. The rest of the site takes a deeper look at the nuances of common search commands and digs up some of the more obscure search engine commands too.
Search Commands* is in beta.
Google search commands summary
- cache:
- Show the cached snapshot of a page
- link:
- List pages which link to a page
- related:
- List pages which Google consider to be related to another
- info:
- Find one specific URL in the search database
- define:
- Show Google's glossary definition for a term
- stocks:
- Show American stockmarket information for a given ticker symbol
- site:
- Restrict a search to a single site
- allintitle:
- Restrict a search so that all the keywords must appear in the title
- intitle:
- Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
- allintext:
- Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text
- allinurl:
- Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the page address
- inurl:
- Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
- OR
- List pages which have at least some of the keywords
- +
- Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
- -
- Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
- ~
- Enhance a search to include synonyms for a given keyword
- *
- Include a wildcard match in your search results
- [#]...[#]
- Search a range of numbers as a keyword
- daterange:
- Restrict a search to any timeframe
- ""
- Restrict a search so that the keywords must appear consecutively in a phrase
- date:
- Restrict a search to a recent timeframe
- safesearch:
- Restrict a search to exclude adult-content
- filetype:
- Restrict a search to a given type of file
More information about Google's search commands is available on the dedicated Google search commands page. In Google's page we look at how to use each commands, which search commands can be used together and which cannot.
Yahoo search commands summary
- site:
- Restrict a search to a single site
- hostname:
- Restrict a search to a single host name
- link:
- List pages which link to a page
- url:
- Find one specific URL in the search database
- inurl:
- Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
- intitle:
- Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
- map
- Inclue a map of any US location
- weather
- Include current weatherinformation for any US location
- define
- Include a defination for the keyword
- airport
- Link to weather, directions and maps for an American airport
- area code
- Include a list of cities which match the US area code
- facts
- Include encyclopedia entry for keyword
- convert:
- Show a variety of unit conversion rates, for example currency or distance
- gas
- Include link to gas prices for an American area
- hotels
- Include links to hotels in the area
- showtimes
- Include and link to movie showtimes in the area
- news
- Include and link to news headlines which match the keyword
- patent
- Link to detailed information for the matching patent number keyword
- quote
- Show American stockmarket information for a given ticker symbol
- synonym
- Include synonyms for keyword and link to definitions of each
- scores
- Include and link to score results for team name keyword
- time
- Include local time and timezone information for location keyword
- traffic
- Link to traffic reports for location keyword
- zip code
- Include a list of zip codes which match the location keyword
- +
- Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
- -
- Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
- feature:
- Restrict a search to pages which include a given feature
- region:
- Restrict a search to pages from a given region
More information about Yahoo's search commands is available on the dedicated Yahoo search commands page. In Yahoo's page we look at how to use each commands, which search commands can be used together and which cannot.
Live search commands
- filetype:
- Restrict a search to a given type of file
- link:
- List pages which link to a page
- linkdomain:
- List pages which link to a domain
- LinkFromDomain:
- List pages which a domain links to
- contains:
- List pages which link to a given filetype
- inurl
- Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
- inanchor:
- Restrict a search so that the keyword must appear in anchors tags on the page
- intitle:
- Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
- inbody:
- Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text
- ip:
- List sites hosted by keyword IP address
- language:
- Restrict a search to a specific language
- location:
- Restrict a search to pages from a given region
- prefer:
- Enhance a search by giving emphasis to the given keyword
- site:
- Restrict a search to a single site
- url:
- Find one specific URL in the search database
- +
- Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
- -
- Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
- NOT
- Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results
- OR
- List pages which have at least some of the keywords
- |
- List pages which have at least some of the keywords
- ""
- Restrict a search so that the keywords must appear consecutively in a phrase
- ()
- Group keywords together
More information about Live Search's search commands is available on the dedicated Live search commands page. In Live Search's page we look at how to use each commands, which search commands can be used together and which cannot.
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