#!# Using Google /www/intrawebz

Greetz all, Most of you don't know me; but one of the things I usually do with my free time is give tech support. Many of the problems I see could so easily be resolved with a quick google. So today, I'll write a guide for those who are not already google-hardened.

Lets start with the basics first. Your searches should be kept as small as possible, as each word you search for gets filtered in as it's own criteria. 3-6 words is best. Using keywords, If I wanted to find out some info on fuel tank issues for a ford pinto I'd wan't to type in something like: 'ford pinto fuel tank issue'. But if you don't know what exactly it is you're trying to search, use a description. An example of that would be 'ford pinto tank explodes'. Just by omitting 'fuel' in that query I have 1 less operator in the search, meaning I'll have more searches including 'gas tank' instead of searches that would otherwise predominantly include 'fuel'.

But with google searching, you can use syntax to help you out on your searches across the many planes of the internets. Here are a few of them:


url: <word>
This is freaking amazing, so you're looking for a website and you can only remember a small part of it. You can use this to look for websites using your keyword(s). For example 'url:baskin*' would bring up a list of websites containing 'baskin' in the url. Like baskin robins

site:whatever.com
Just like url, but you have to be a bit more specific. so like if you did.. 'documents site:.gov' You would search for 'documents', however all of your search results would be for *.gov sites. Nifty eh?

link:
This is great, but not better than url:. You would use this to find websites that use a specific link, using wildcards also helps quite a bit here. So like..
'link:google.com*' would pull out a massive orgy of a search that would contain a whole shit-storm of sites that where linked to google.

filetype:
Great for finding files, or searching for pics or whatever. for example: ' lil & wayne filetype:mp3' will only link you to mp3s for example, that contain both 'lil' and 'wayne' (oh mah god, then when you use 'save page as' life gets made nise.

allintitle:
It's cool, basically your search results will be applied to the title of the page vs the description google provides. So.. 'allintitle: epic pornography' will result in finding page titles that include both 'epic' and 'pornography'.

allinurl:
Exactly like 'url:', only it works alot better. srsly

allintext:
Searches web pages themselves. Like.. 'allintext: "deadly spiders" ' will bring you results with web pages containing the phrase 'deadly spiders'.

define: <word>
Of course omitting the angle brackets, you can use 'define:' to find multiple definitions of a word. Making google you're own personal dictionary bitch when you're stumped on a word.

wildcards*
You can use wildcards in your searches, in other words, using an asterisk* will allow you to use 1 word, but with many meanings. For example If I wanted to use a search that lets say.. I forgot the rest of the word but I wanted to search anyway. I would use a wild card. For example, I can't remember the name of a dinosaur, so I'd use a wild card, so I'd search 'tyrano*' and it'll search for all words that start with 'tyrano'.

&!
My personal favorite, I use it on every fucking google search I have ever done! Basically what this does, (for those of you that don't code) that sir, is 'and not'. You can use it to do searches where the first word will be searched, and the word on the other side of the operators will be forced to not show up in a search. So if you did ' "kettle chips" &! lays '. You will search for 'kettle chips', and 'lays' will not show up in your search.

~
If you're searching, (remember that all words are seperate, if you search for 'train wreck' you'll get searches for 'train' and 'wreck'. You can use this operator to ensure that your searches will be within a few words apart. For example, 'train ~ wreck' will almost ALWAYS guarantee your search results will be strictly about train wrecks.

&|
'and' and 'or' are two bad ass little sidekicks, using '&' will make sure your search results include 2 words, or at least the two on either side of the ampersand. For example 'shotgun & pistol' will only bring you results containing BOTH 'shotgun' and 'pistol'. (fair enough?). However using '|' (right above enter key, hit shift.) is for 'or'. It is uses when you only want to find a result containing a word on either side of it. So.... you could do 'shotgun | pistol' and your results would only contain either 'shotgun' OR 'pistol'. It's useful if you're just not quite sure.

"quotes"
These are nice, basically all they do is keep your search criteria in order. handy when you know what it is you're looking for and want to go right for the throat. You'd just type "i lyk pie" and every one of your searches will contain in that exact order 'i lyk pie'.

(distinguish)
Useful lil fellers, it is used to group searches, but at the same time keeping others seperate. For example: ' ( "kettle chips" ) ~ (jalapeno &! lays) '. This will search for crap containing 'kettle chips' near to the word 'jalapeno' but will not show any results carrying 'lays'. Useful, because lays can't bake a chip to save their own lives.

Well, there you have it, a very basic introduction to using google's search engine. The cool part is you can actually get PAID MONEY to google crap like a pro. Stupid services such as kgb or chacha actually pay people money to answer stupid questions you just google the answer to.

Peace out, 1ce

 

very nice job!
thanks