| Search Features: 1. Spelling
On misspellings Google asks "did you mean"
and shows first two results with the other spelling, and then result
that match your word.
For color it matches on word, for colour it looks
for color and colour. To be safe, you could use OR - "(color
OR colour) wheel"
2. Truncation/ stemming
Get singular and plural.
Use ~ operator. "quebec city" ~tour finds tour, tours,
tourism, tourist. If the words aren't what you want, use the OR construction
--( tour OR tours)
Get word variants.
Use ~ operator to get variants and synonyms (of a sort).
3. Quotations
Get full quotation
-- Google looks for all words. Can use * as a wildcard in a phrase:
"peaches * cream" will get "peaches and cream",
"peaches with cream" etc.
4. Synonyms
Widen search --
Use ~ to pick up synonyms and word variants. ~coffee finds
cafe and caffeine.
5. Show matches (Cache)
Cached View the
page as it was when Google indexed it. Shows date indexed.
6. Field Search
May combine fields in a search.
Find pages with all words in title
allintitle:fruit salad
Find pages with some of words
in title
intitle:"fruit salad " apples oranges - looks for fruit
salad in title and the others anywhere.
Find pages with either A or
B in title
intitle:"fruit salad" OR intitle:"fruit compote"
Find pages with all words
in url
allinurl:blog shakespeare - TIP: to zero in on weblogs look for blog
or weblog in the url. Use this when you think you can remember the
parts of a url, or as a long shot..
Find pages with some of words
in url
inurl:blog shakespeare - looks for blog in url and shakespeare anywhere.
Find pages with word in body
text (not link text, urls or titles)
intext:wilfridlaurier. [Limited use.]
Find pages at a site
site:utoronto.ca - Site can be the domain or the url of host computer
(eg site:www.utoronto.ca).
Find pages at a site with
a term
site:utoronto.ca genealogy
Find pdf documents on a topic
filetype:pdf "fruit salad". Google can also find .doc, .xls,
.rtf, .ps, .ppt, mw (macwrite) and several Lotus/Corel types. Can
combine with other commands. OR use Advanced
Search
Find flash files
filetype:swf hockey game. Flash files are often mini-videos that can
be interactive. Good for finding online games and tutorials.
7. Backward Search
Find pages that link to a
favourite (Can combine this with other terms.)
link:www.websearchguide.ca tutorial - links to site and has
the word tutorial
OR use Advanced Search [Not very good]
8. More like this
Similar pages Google
will match on general content and type of site (education, government
...). Done according to analysis of mutual incoming links.
9. Language
Language Select
Use Language Tools to select a certain language or country.
Restrict search and display Preset
choice through Preferences. Google has over 40 language interfaces
and can search over 30 languages.
Translate Translates
Italian, French, Spanish, and German into English.
10. Date Range
Find pages that have been
indexed recently:
Use Advanced Search to limit the search to one of the time periods
in the pull-down menu (day, week, month, ...). Looks at date that
Google first indexed the page. Can change value of &as_qdr
in the url by adding =d[num], =w[num], =y[num]; eg &as_qdr=d10
- for 10 days.
Use Show Options: Click on Latest, 24 hours, past
week etc.
11. Images
Find an image Select
the Google Tab for images. Use Show Options to refine search. Can
select from news, faces, clip art, line drawings, photo.
12. Videos
Find a video Select
the Google Tab for videos. Use Show Options to refine search. Can
select by recency, duration, type of video, source.
13. Local
Find businesses or get directions
Select the Google tab for Maps. Enter the address of a destination
and get directions, or the type of business to locate them in an area.
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