Google Search Tips:

Advanced Features

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Advanced Features of Google
Query modifiers
filetypes
define
Wild Card Word in Phrase (WCWIP)
GAPS (proximity search)
Punctuation
Diacritics
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Query modifiers
Use these commands in the search window.
intitle:test
allintitle:test results
inurl:testresults
allinurl:testresults personality
allintext:test results personality
allinanchor:test results personality
site:loc.gov
filetype:doc
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 This search returns
intitle:test results sites with the word test
in the title and results
anywhere in the
document.

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 Note: In this
allintitle:test results example there are
much fewer “hits”
ALL of the search terms will when both terms
(test AND results)
be found in the title. must be found in the
title of the page.

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inurl:test results
inurl:test results – only test must be
found in the web address (URL)

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allinurl:test results
Both test AND results must be found in
the web address.

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allintext
Sometimes you get pages that do not
have your search term/phrase in them.
Why? Because Google also searches for
pages that just link to the target page.
Use allintext to get only those pages
that have your search terms in them.
Compare the searches in the next two
slides…
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1. crash test results

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2. allintext:crash test results

Different pages
float to the top of
your “hit list”.
And you get fewer
pages than before.

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allinanchor
Returns only pages that link to pages
with your search terms, but not in the
actual pages.
This is the opposite of allintext.

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site:
Limit your search to a specific web site.
Enter search terms then qualifier.
EXAMPLES:
“elephant race” site:fullerton.edu
• Finds elephant race(s) on the Cal State Fullerton site
dinosaur site:si.edu
• Finds dinosaur on the Smithsonian Institute site
One more…
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schwarzenegger site:sen.ca.gov

Limits search of
schwarzenegger to
official California
senate pages.

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filetype:
You can specify a type of document to
search.
EXAMPLES:
pdf – Adobe readable files
doc – Microsoft Word documents
mdb – Microsoft Access databases
jpg, gif, tif – graphics, photos
ppt – Microsoft PowerPoint presentations

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Putting it all together
Search Sample – schwarzenegger filetype:pdf site:ca.gov

Limits search of
schwarzenegger to
find only pdf files on
official california
government pages.

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define:
will provide definitions of the words,
gathered from various online
sources.

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Wild Card Word in Phrase *
Using a wildcard (*) for a character
does not work in Google.
cat* returns the same results as cat.
However…
You can replace unknown words with
an asterisk (*).

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Possible Uses for WCWIP
Searching out suspected plagiarism.
Common misspellings – all the spellings
of a word will be found.
Variations
“Harry Potter and the * Stone” returns
both US (Sorcerer's ) and UK
(Philosopher’s) versions of the book title.
And…

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Fun
Finding parodies.

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GAPS by Staggernation.com
Google API Proximity Search
A script that searches Google for two search
terms that appear within a certain proximity
of each other on a page.
• Studies show that the closer search terms are in
proximity, the better chance that the document is
relevant to the searcher’s need.
For more info go to:
http://www.staggernation.com/gaps/readme.html

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http://www.staggernation.com

Searching for all kinds of

cookie recipes with chocolate –
but not oatmeal?
This search will get:
•Chocolate chip cookie recipes
•Chocolate cookie recipes
•Chocolate covered cherry
cookie recipe

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Punctuation: it might matter
Google (and most other search engines)
used to drop punctuation and replace it
with a space (i.e., CD-ROM = CD ROM).
But now Google is including the
underscore (_) and ampersand (&) as
well as enabling searching for terms
such as c++ programming.

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Diacritics
You have an option to
Unite or unité? search for English only.

And you can have this

page translated from the
French to English.

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Diacritics – OR (try both)
Rene = about
36,700 hits

René =about
6,880 hits

BOTH = about
41,500 hits

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Search Engine Showdown
For in depth information on how Google
and other web search engines work, go to
Greg Notess’ Search Engine Showdown:
The User’s Guide to Web Searching at
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/

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See More Google
This is one of three presentations on
Google Search Tips. Others include:
Lesser Used Features
Lesser Used Databases
Advanced Functions

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