Google Operators
site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the “site:” and the domain.
allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both “google” and “search” in the title.
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word “google” in their title, and mention the word “search” anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the “intitle:” and the following word.
Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both “google” and “search” in the url.
Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words “foo” and “bar” in the url, but won’t require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word “google” in their url, and mention the word “search” anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the “inurl:” and the following word.
Putting “inurl:” in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting “allinurl:” at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].
allinanchor: Note: Not taken directly from Google, but is my definition.
If you start a query with [allinanchor:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in anchor text pointing to their site. For instance, [allinanchor: google search] will return documents that have both “google” and “search” in anchor text pointing to their site.
Note that [allinanchor:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinanchor: foo/bar] will restrict the results to pages with the words “foo” and “bar” in the anchor text, but won’t require that they be separated by a slash within that anchor text, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
inanchor: Note: Not taken directly from Google, but is my definition.
If you include [inanchor:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in anchor text pointing to their site. For instance, [inanchor:google search] will return documents that have the word “google” in anchor text pointing to their site, and mention the word “search” anywhere in the document. Note there can be no space between the “inanchor:” and the following word.
Putting “inanchor:” in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting “allinanchor:” at the front of your query: [inanchor:google inanchor:search] is the same as [allinanchor: google search].
cache:
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google’s cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “cache:” and the web page url.
If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word “web” highlighted.
link:
The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “link:” and the web page url.
related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are “similar” to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “related:” and the web page url.
info:
The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “info:” and the web page url.
define:
The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).
stocks:
If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.)
Yahoo Operators
site:
This allows one to find all documents within a particular domain and all it’s subdomains. Very good way to find out if the search engine has found all of you’re pages and indexed them fully.
Example: site:creativeconfusion.net
hostname:
This allows you to find all documents from a particular host only. Example: hostname:toolbar.google.com
link:
This allows one to find documents that link to a particular url. A great way to see if you’re link exchanges are working and showing up.
Example: link:http://www.creativeconfusion.net
url:
This allows you to find a specific document in the Yahoo index.
Example: url:http://www.creativeconfusion.net/search_engines/yahoo-commands.html
inurl:
This will allow you to find a specific keyword as part of indexed urls.
Example: inurl:search_engines
intitle:
This allows one to find a specific keyword as part of the indexed titles in the Yahoo search engine. Great way of searching for spam.
Example: intitle:Search Engine News
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