Google tricks & Other Tutorials

I have been quite fascinated by Google ever since they started out as a search engine. Over the time Google has become an indispensable tool for any serious geek. I will describe a few techniques that I use. They have been collected from various help pages, chat rooms and books. If you find any error please point it out.

1.) Common queries:

So how will you effectively use Google. Take this example. A friend of mine was asking me over yahoo messenger what is a blog. I told him to search on Google and find out. He tried this.
blog

Alas the answer was there but lost in thousands of links. He alerted me that he can't find an answer. I told " Ok , Let me see What is wrong? ". I tried this

What is blog
The answer was right there.

While formulating search queries you must be specific as far as possible. A query like Linux vpn howto can yield a different result than vpn howto. Google seems to be intelligent enough to understand some human thought chain. So while making queries be a bit descriptive and formulate a properly worded query. Google ignores some of the common words such as 'the' 'and' 'a' etc while performing a search.

2.) How to formulate a good search string :

Google uses AND logic for the queries by default. If you search linux vpn howto google searches for pages containing linux AND vpn AND howto. You can put OR logic in the search box like this

linux OR vpn OR howto

You can exclude some terms using "-"

linux vpn -installation

Try ( linux vpn - installation ) and see how it is different from the above query. You can group a set of terms by enclosing them in brackets. It is also possible to combine AND and OR operators.

It may be noted that Google is not case sensitive regarding search strings. Linux, LINUX and linux produces the same results. However the operators such as AND and OR are case sensitive.

3.) Searching for a file :

Suppose you want to search for pdf documents only. You can do this by attaching a filetype modifier to your query. A typical query can look like this

vpn filetype:pdf
Google can recognize most common filetyes.

4.) Searching only at a site :

This is similar to file type modifier. Try this VPN site:ibm.com
Then try vpn site:edu filetype:pdf You can get some interesting result by trying this query
linux site:microsoft.com

5.) Searching in URLs and Page titles :

You can search in urls using inurl modifier. Try inurl:smb.conf

Similarly you can use intitle modifier.

6.) Searching in Google cache :

If you are looking for some old web site you can directly search in Google cache.
Try cache:slashdot.org and see the cached pages.

7.) Looking for definitions :

This can be handy if your school going kid pesters you for his home work.
Try

define:watt
It bring out definitions from around the web.

8.) Looking at Google advanced search :

I think it is one link that most people try to ignore. It is designed for commoners. Almost all the options I mentioned above are available through advanced search.

The preferences page is also worth a visit. It uses cookies to set preferences such as number of search results to be displayed, language preferences etc.

9.) Finding the price of some geek gadget :

Google has a companion site called froogle.com. Its interface is exactly similar. But it returns prices across various stores in the US. This feature can be very useful if you plan to buy some strange hardware. Let us hope that froogle.co.in will appear soon.

10.) Google Calculator :

In the google search :
Type in an equation: (100+4567*10-200=)
What is the square root of 267? (sqrt(267))

11.) Google labs :

Google is very innovative and always tries to introduce new features. You can see some of the upcoming features at labs.google.com . Also Google conducts a puzzle champion ships annually.

12.) Google Sets :

Google sets is an interesting feature currently available at http://labs.google.com/sets.

Have a look at the page. You will see a number of text boxes. Enter some words which belongs to a set of items and search. Google will complete the set.

[get this widget]

[get this widget]

Below I have compiled a list of 7 clever Google tricks that I believe everyone should be aware of. Together I think they represent the apex of the grand possibilities associated with Google search manipulation tricks and hacks. Although there are many others out there, these 7 tricks are my all-time favorite. Enjoy yourself.

1. Find the Face Behind the Result – This is a neat trick you can use on a Google Image search to filter the search results so that they include only images of people. How is this useful? Well, it could come in handy if you are looking for images of the prominent people behind popular products, companies, or geographic locations. You can perform this search by appending the code &imgtype=face to the end of the URL address after you perform a standard Google Image search.

• Examples (notice the differences in each URL):
  • Image Search for Google vs. Faces Behind Google Image Search
  • Image Search for Digg vs. Faces Behind Digg Image Search
  • Image Search for California vs. Faces Behind California Image Search

2. Google + Social Media Sites = Quality Free Stuff – If you are on the hunt for free desktop wallpaper, stock images, Wordpress templates or the like, using Google to search your favorite social media sites is your best bet. The word “free” in any standard search query immediately attracts spam. Why wade through potential spam in standard search results when numerous social media sites have an active community of users who have already ranked and reviewed the specific free items that interest you. All you have to do is direct Google to search through each of these individual social media sites, and bingo… you find quality content ranked by hundreds of other people.

• Examples:
  • site:digg.com free “desktop wallpaper”
  • site:reddit.com free “wordpress templates”
  • site:del.icio.us free “stock images”
  • site:netscape.com free “ringtones”
  • site:stumbleupon.com free icons
  • More info.

3. Find Free Anonymous Web Proxies – A free anonymous web proxy site allows any web browser to access other third-party websites by channeling the browser’s connection through the proxy. The web proxy basically acts as a middleman between your web browser and the third-party website you are visiting. Why would you want to do this? There are two common reasons:

• You’re connecting to a public network at a coffee shop or internet café and you want privacy while you browse the web. You don’t want the admin to know every site you visit.
• You want to bypass a web content filter or perhaps a server-side ban on your IP address. Content filtering is common practice on college campus networks. This trick will usually bypass those restrictions.

There are subscription services and applications available such as TOR and paid VPN servers that do the same thing. However, this trick is free and easy to access from anywhere via Google. All you have to do is look through the search results returned by the queries below, find a proxy that works, and enter in the URL of the site you want to browse anonymously.

• Examples:
  • inurl:”nph-proxy.cgi” “start using cgiproxy”
  • inurl:”nph-proxy.cgi” “Start browsing through this CGI-based proxy”
  • More info.

4. Google for Music, Videos, and Ebooks - Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. Open web directories are one of the easiest places to quickly find an endless quantity of freely downloadable files. This is an oldie, but it’s a goodie! Why thousands of webmasters incessantly fail to secure their web severs will continue to boggle our minds.

• Examples:
  • Find Music: -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) “Counting Crows”
  • Find Videos: -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mpg|wmv) “chapelle”
  • Find Ebooks: -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(pdf|doc) “george orwell 1984″

5. Browse Open Webcams Worldwide – Take a randomized streaming video tour of the world by searching Google for live open access video webcams. This may not be the most productive Google trick ever, but it sure is fun! (Note: you may be prompted to install an ActiveX control or the Java runtime environment which allows your browser to view certain video stream formats.)

• Examples:
  • Axis Webcams: inurl:/view.shtml or inurl:view/index.shtml
  • Cannon Webcams: sample/LvAppl/
  • MOBOTIX Webcams: control/userimage.html
  • FlexWatch Webcams: /app/idxas.html
  • JVC Webcams: intitle: intitle:”V.Networks [Motion Picture(Java)]”

6. Judge a Site by its Image – Find out what a site is all about by looking at a random selection of the images hosted on its web pages. Even if you are somewhat familiar with the target site’s content, this can be an entertaining little exercise. You will almost surely find something you didn’t expect to see. All you have to do is use Google’s site: operator to target a domain in an image search.

• Examples:
  • Digg in Images
  • Wired in Images
  • Reddit in Images
  • More info.

7. Results Based on Third-Party Opinion - Sometimes you can get a better idea of the content located within a website by reading how other websites refer to that site’s content. The allinanchor: Google search operator can save you large quantities of time when a normal textual based search query fails to fetch the information you desire. It conducts a search based on keywords used strictly in the anchor text, or linking text, of third party sites that link to the web pages returned by the search query. In other words, this operator filters your search results in a way such that Google ignores the title and content of the returned web pages, but instead bases the search relevance on the keywords that other sites use to reference the results. It can add a whole new dimension of variety to your search results.

• Examples (notice the added variety between search results):
• allinanchor:”google hacks” vs. basic search for Google hacks
• allinanchor:”wordpress exploits” vs. basic search for Wordpress exploits

Bonus Material:

Here is a list of my favorite Google advanced search operators, operator combinations, and related uses:

• link:URL = lists other pages that link to the URL.
• related:URL = lists other pages that are related to the URL.
• site:domain.com “search term = restricts search results to the given domain.
• allinurl:WORDS = shows only pages with all search terms in the url.
• inurl:WORD = like allinurl: but filters the URL based on the first term only.
• allintitle:WORD = shows only results with terms in title.
• intitle:WORD = similar to allintitle, but only for the next word.
• cache:URL = will show the Google cached version of the URL.
• info:URL = will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.
• filetype:SOMEFILETYPE = will restrict searches to that filetype
• -filetype:SOMEFILETYPE = will remove that file type from the search.
• site:www.somesite.net “+www.somesite.net” = shows you how many pages of your site are indexed by google
• allintext: = searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title
• allinlinks: = searches only within links, not text or title
• WordA OR WordB = search for either the word A or B
• “Word” OR “Phrase” = search exact word or phrase
• WordA -WordB = find word A but filter results that include word B
• WordA +WordB = results much contain both Word A and Word B
• ~WORD = looks up the word and its synonyms
• ~WORD -WORD = looks up only the synonyms to the word
• More info.

[get this widget]