Google isn't only a simple 'enter your keyword' and get a search result search engine. If educated properly, Search engines also give us a plethora of other services including “shortcuts” that help display relevant search results, avoiding in the process, a long list of results that are not so specific or relevant to your search.
Many of these shortcuts can also be used in Bing and Yahoo!. These shortcuts are helpful every type of person including people searching for a phone number, flight information, shoppers, SEO professionals and just about anyone!
Here are 10 helpful ways that can help get more fine tuned with your search results.
1. Related Websites
If you want to see related websites of a particular website just type “related:” followed by site name. For Example related:http://www.dell.com will show sites such as HP, Apple, Toshiba etc. which are the companies that also deal with PC’s, laptops, computer peripherals etc. This will help us gain a good knowledge of our competitors' websites and maybe help you shop around a little!
2. Words in the title
allintitle:"Rise to the Top Blog" will list all the pages that contains the meta title “Rise to the Top Blog” in any web sites page title. Using 'Image Search', the operator allintitle: will return images in files whose names contain the terms that you specify and in Google News, it will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.
3. Words in the URL
inurl:google-surprises-us will list all the pages which contains the word “google-surprises-us” in the actual URL or domain name. In other words If you’re looking for specific URLs that contain certain words, this shortcut can find them.
4. Information from a specific website
If you include site: followed by domain / site name in your search, Google will restrict your search results to the domain / site you specify. For example, internet marketing toronto site:https://www.techwyse.com will show Internet Marketing information from the website techwyse.com.
5. Dictionary
This is definitely something that comes in handy for me a lot as well. You can see the definition for any word or phrase by simply typing “definition” followed by a space and then the actual word(s) that you wanted defined. If you want to see a list of definitions from various resources across the Web, type “define:” followed by a space and the word(s). Try typing “definition SEO” and “define: SEO” in to Google search and see the difference.
6. Phone Number & Address
If you need to look up a US residence phone number or address you can do that as well. Click here to get a list of phone book searches for the name “Bill Gates”. The results display, name, phone number, address as well as a link to map. The text to be typed in the search box is “phonebook: Bill Gates”.
Simply enter the person’s name along with a city, state, or zip code in the Google search box and you’ll be excited with the results.
7. Package Tracking
If you have purchased any goods online and if the package / goods are on shipment or in flight Google search can help you track the status without logging in to the tracking sites such as FedEx or UPS. First you’ll need the tracking number of your order, which you can get from the actual site/company that you ordered from. Second, you’ll need to know how it’s being shipped (via FedEx, UPS, or USPS). That’s it. Watch a demo of package tracking in action here.
If your package is sent by UPS and the tracking number is 123456, Just enter “ups 123456” in the Google search box. Even though it’s not necessary to enter the shipping company, it will provide you with more refined search results.
8. Flight Tracking
You can look up information on any flight by simply typing the airline name or code followed by a space and flight number into the Google search box. “Air canada 797” will show the status of Air Canada airlines for the flight number 797.
9. Weather
Google gives better results if we search for weather in a particular country, state or region using zip code.. Suppose that I want to know the weather conditions in San Francisco, all that I need to do is to type “weather San Francisco, CA”. If we do not it gives us the current weather but also gives the weather forecasts for the next few subsequent days.
10. Other Shortcuts
Other shortcuts which you may find useful:
- allinanchor:internet marketing toronto - will return only pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages contain the words “internet marketing toronto”.
- allintext: Two Way Live Voice Communication will return the pages that contain the text “Two Way Live Voice Communication”.
- info:techwyse.com will present some information about the corresponding web page such as the google cache, web pages that are similiar, web pages from the site etc..
- cache:techwyse.com/contactus.php will display the cached version of the page contactus.php
- wyselabs location:canada will show articles that match the term “wyselabs” from sites in Canada.
I invite every one familiar with this topic to include any additional information in the comment box below so that we all can broaden our knowledge base on this particular topic.
We all know that a more educated searcher means a searcher that finds what he wants!
on
Wow, number 6 is fantastic! I will definitely try this!
on
OMG! Nice snacks for a search tea-time. There are so many things you can do on Google. I am really delighted to read this post. Thanks!
on
Fantastic stuff Jay.
I am sure this should be fresh findings for many of us including me. But for this post we wouldn’t have known these tricks. Thanks for all the knowledge.