How to configure your Google search preferences & search within results

Posted on April 17, 2007 at 1:02 pm

I’ve been searching the Internet using Google for years now and yet I have never bothered to set my Search Preferences until TODAY! Quite late considering some of the options are actually quite useful! This post is inspired by the fac that I was trying to perform a search within a set of search results and could not figure out how to do it in Google for about 10 minutes! So without further adeiu, here’s how to setup your search options.

First off, when you are on the main Google page, you’ll see a couple of links off to the right of the search box, namely Advanced Search, Preferences, and Language Tools. Click on Preferences.

Now you’ll get the list of Global Preferences that you can configure:

1. Interface Language -

This refers to which language you would like to use for all the interface items. Let’s say you change it to Hindi, then the Google search buttons and text will all be written in Hindi. However, the search results themsevles are not in Hindi nor are the sponsored links down the right side, only the “Google” parts of the page:

2. Search Language - If you’re only interested in seeing pages written in a particular language, then check “Search only for pages written in these languages” and check the languages. This can be useful if you’re looking for a very specific site and you know it’s written in Spanish, let’s say, but you keep getting a bunch of English written web sites when you perform a search.

3. Safe Search Filtering - This is one of those settings for those naughty people who “need” to have their search results unadulterated! Right! If you want to block explicit text and images from search results, choose Strict Filtering. Moderate Filtering is by default and blocks X-Rated images, but not text.

4. Number of Results - Up to now, nothing was really very useful for me, but I hate only having 10 results per page, so I quickly changed that value to something more reasonable like 50! Why click next 5 times, when you can see everything on one page!

5. Results Window - This option is also very useful if you are one of those people who finds themselves constantly right-clicking on a search result and choosing “Open in New Window”! It’s just easier to set the option here and whenever you click on a result, it’ll pop up a new window! Nice and easy!

Finally, go ahead and save your preferences by clicking the button at the bottom right. Another useful feature that you might have seen before is the ability to search within a set of results from another search, a search within search type of thing. I couldn’t figure out how to do this in Google for almost 10 minutes and I’m not sure why it’s not a much more obvious option because I use it occasionaly.

Anyway, first perform a search on whatever you like, let’s say the word “cars”. Now you’ll get back about 401,000,000 results and maybe you want to now search within this set to find “modified engines” or something. So in order to do that, you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see the normal Google search box with a few links below it. One of the links is named “Search within results”. Note this option is not visible anywhere for the search box at the top of the page.

Any more search tips? Post a comment!

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» Filed Under Google Software/Tips

5 Responses to “How to configure your Google search preferences & search within results”

Mike said on : May 27th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Some time during the day, Google has removed the “search within resusts” option. I use this a lot. Do you have any comments on this?

Gerry Nolan said on : May 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Thanks for the post. Perhaps you can tell me where the “Search within results” button has gone from the Google search page. Without it I feel as though my arm has been cut-off!!

MBA said on : May 28th, 2008 at 8:35 am

Also missing “search within results”! Lost without it. Any explanation??

KJK said on : May 28th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

Same here… I watched the “Search Within Results” option disappear from Google yesterday before my very eyes. One moment it was there… then it was gone. What’s REALLY odd is that I switched over to a laptop and ran Firefox and it was STILL there. It was just gone from my Firefox and MSIE on my desktop. So today I checked again. Same story. “Search within results” still missing from Google if I use my desktop but is NOT missing from the page if I use my laptop.

So I tried something. I realized I hadn’t cleared my browser cache lately ( or cookies ) on my laptop so I did that and then hit Google again just now.

WHAMO… “Search within results” is now also missing from Google page(s) from BOTH my Desktop and Laptop.

So this has something to do with a ‘Cookie’.
If you haven’t cleared your browser Cookies then you are probably still seeing the “Search within results” option.

The moment you clear your browser cache/cookies… it’s going to vanish ( Forever? ).

Have they lost their minds at Google?

It’s just a Search engine. That’s all they do.
Don’t fix what isn’t broken or your entire reason
for being can vanish as fast as you can say “Yahoo”.

The ONLY reason I was using Google in the first place
was because of that handy “Search within Results” option.
I am now no longer using Google at all.

If they don’t put that “Search within results” option back I think they are committing “Search engine suicide”.

Could it be that they want to CHARGE for it now?
Rumors abound that Google is losing money like holes punched in the bottom of a corn silo. Maybe they are starting to get desperate and are going to create some kind of “pay to play”
account. It won’t work.

Mike said on : May 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Wow, like magic, search within results has returned. Getting comments to Google is either impossible or not worth the effort. In the future they should maybe poll their users before pulling a stunt like removing a useful tool. Search within results was my main purpose of using Google also.