More Advanced Web Search Examples

More Advanced Web Search Examples

Allow allow you to perform advanced searches on Google by learning the parameters involved with each search function.

You may also use the Advanced Google Search tool on this website for performing these searches without needing to know the specific parameters and how they function. To access the Advanced Google Search tool, simply visit: http://www.catchmeifyouknowhow.com/index.php/tutorials/advanced-google-searches

Quote Marks: ”Travis Morgan“
Quote marks allows you to search EXACTLY that phrase instead of all of the words in random order. So a search for “Travis Morgan” will not display pages that have ‘Randy Travis riding a Morgan horse’ unless it references a “Travis Morgan” on that page also.

Hyphens: “Travis Morgan” - music
Hyphens (aka negative sign) will eliminate words from your search. If you specify a word with a hyphen, any search results will not contain that word. A search for “Travis Morgan” – music will show all pages with “Travis Morgan,” as long as the word music is not on the page also. Beware, though, because important results may be eliminated from your search. For example, I could have a page that talks about my favorite music, and the above search will eliminate that page from your results - including a MySpace page.

Plus Sign: “Travis Morgan” +music (Discontinued by Google)
A plus sign (aka addition sign) will require the additional words to appear in your search. If you specify a word with a plus, all search results will contain those words also. A search for “Travis Morgan” +music will show all pages with Travis Morgan, as long as the word music is also on the page.

Site Search: site:domain.com or sub.domain.com
A site search is extremely helpful especially when a website may not have a search feature, or you prefer to see all results that Google has indexed for a site using your search words.

A search for Travis Morgan site:craigslist.org will show you all pages that have Travis and Morgan only on Craigslist. A search for "travis morgan" site:craigslist.org will likely not show you any results because no one has posted the name Travis Morgan together in an exact phrase on Craigslist.

Date Range: daterange:01012001..01012011
If you would like to search for for web pages that have been created or modified with a specific time period, you can add daterange:MM-DD-YYYY..MM-DD-YYYY to your search.

A search for “Travis Morgan” daterange:09-01-2011..12-31-2011 will only show you results that have Travis Morgan listed on pages that were modified or created between September 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

Cache: cache:domain.com
If you know or suspect there was something on a website but has since been removed, you can perform a search for a cached version (an older version Google scanned previously) to see what a website or even a specific web page contained.

Perform a search of cache:catchmeifyouknowhow.com and you will get a slightly older version of the website to see what was posted previously before its latest updates.

Phonebook: phonebook:firstname+lastname
A phonebook search is very handy for searching people online. You get results from online phone directories, as well as an unlimited number of contact information from websites which Google has scanned.

A search of phonebook:travis+morgan will display all results of contact information for anyone with the name Travis Morgan. Be sure to include the plus sign between first name and last name.