Google syntax search tricks

Posted on September 4, 2009 at 5:17 am

Lately we have shown you how to search for content inside a protected website like Rapidshare. Using a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or characteristics of Web pages. To see the complete list of syntax rules, visit this page: www.google.com/help/operators.html

There are some keywords that you can use to limit searches. For example, if you want to search for pages where the <TITLE> meta-tag contains your desired keyword, use the “Intitle” keyword followed by the search string.

“Intitle: computer tips” will show only websites with “computer tips” in the title of the page.

The keyword link, on the other hand, will let you see which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you’re interested in. For example, try link:http://helpdeskgeek.com

You may mix the keywords to obtain your desired search result. If you want to search for all pages containing the keyword “Shaq” inside facebook.com, search for intitle:shaq site:facebook.com

The site keyword is used to limit the search on a particular domain. This comes in handy if the domain or website’s search engine is not as good as Google’s.

Compare the above search result with just searching for “shaq facebook” that contains pages that are not inside facebook.com:

Use the tips mentioned above to get more accurate search results. I have saved a lot of time on my researches after I have learned this advanced Google syntax utilities.