Search
Tips for the visible web (Google, Yahoo, ASK, etc):
Do you ever
need to search for documents by type (for example a .pdf, excel document, word
document, rss feed, etc. Try adding these search functions in front of your
search term in Google, Yahoo, and most other search engines. If you want to
find out what sites are linked to your website, blog, wiki, etc. then just put link: with your website address in the Google
search box and hit search. For example type link:http://www.sil.si.edu/research/
and hit search and you will get a list of all
the sites that link to http://www.sil.si.edu/research/
For all of these examples you can use a –
dash or a : colon. For example, you can type link:http://www.sil.si.edu/research/ or you can type
link-http://www.sil.si.edu/research/ Just
make sure you do not leave any spaces in the search or it will not work. Try
some of these but put in your own websites, terms, .pdf, .ppt, etc to search.
Just remember no spaces and use either a colon or a dash. For .htm-,
.pdf-, .xls-, .ppt-, .doc-, .xml-, .rdf-, .rss-, and .txt- make sure you put a
dot or period in front of it as well as the dash or colon after it. For site:,
hostname, link, etc. do not put a period or dot in front of the search.
One of my favorites is to find databases on topics I am interested in
searching. For this I just put database:math or database:art in the Google or Yahoo or other search engines.
.htm,
.html—Standard HTML Example (htm-science or htm:science)
.pdf—Adobe
PDF (pdf-botany)
.xls—Microsoft
Excel (xls-horticulture)
.ppt—Microsoft
PowerPoint (ppt-anthropology)
.doc—Microsoft
Word (doc-science)
.xml- .rdf-
.rss—RSS or XML feeds (xml-geology)
.txt—Plain
Text Format (txt-genetics)
site: This
allows you to find all documents within a particular domain and all its
subdomains. Example:
site:yahoo.com
hostname:
This allows you to find all documents from a particular host only.
Example:
hostname:science.yahoo.com
link: This
allows you to find documents that link to a particular URL. Example:
link:http://science.yahoo.com/
url: This
allows you to find a specific document in the index. Example:
url:http://edit.science.yahoo.com/research/tree/0.html
inurl: This
allows you to find a specific keyword as part of indexed URLs. Example:
inurl:horticulture
intitle:
This allows you to find a specific keyword as part of the indexed titles.
Example: intitle:botany
Database:
Find databases. Example: Database math
When you
are searching the full text of web pages. Use specific terms.
Example:
avian influenza causes, not just avian influenza.
Use quotes
to require an exact phrase. Example: "one small duck for man"
Use
capitalized OR to get either word. Example: (avian influenza OR avian flu)
ducks
Use -
(dash) to exclude a word. Example: proliferation -nuclear
Use
"site:" to specify a particular website or Internet domain.
Example:global warming site:whitehouse.gov