8/2/2007 Google Search Tips: Advanced Features By Robin Hartman, Associate Librarian Darling Library – Hope International University Adapted from “A Google Gambol” (Internet Librarian 2003) Greg Notess, Creator, Search Engine Showdown & Reference Librarian, Montana State University Updated by Bethany Ahlberg 8/2/07

8/2/2007 Advanced Features of Google Fill in the Blanks – “*” Diacritics Query modifiers GAPS (proximity search)

8/2/2007 Fill in the Blanks – “*”

8/2/2007 Fill in the Blanks – “*” You can replace unknown words with an asterisk - “*”. Google returns results substituting the “*” with words most frequently used in the context of the query.

8/2/2007 Use “*” for:

8/2/2007 Possible Uses for “*” Busted! Searching out suspected plagiarism.

8/2/2007 Possible Uses for “*” All spellings of a word will be found. Including results with common misspellings.

8/2/2007 Possible Uses for “*” Finding common variations.

8/2/2007 Fun with “*” Finding parodies.

8/2/2007 Do not use “*” for:

8/2/2007 Fill in the Blanks – “*” …Google will treat the characters on either side of the “*” like separate keywords. Replacing a character. If you try to use “*” to fill in a letter, number, or symbol…

8/2/2007 Diacritics

8/2/2007 If you search for a word with a diacritic (distinguishing mark) in it… …will Google return results with or without the diacritic? Diacritics

8/2/2007 Diacritics A search for unité produces results for both unite and unité. The answer is: both!

8/2/2007 Diacritics To limit your search to only unité, add a “-” followed by unite.

8/2/2007 Diacritics Notice how the number of results has decreased.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers Use these commands in the search window. intitle: Find sites with one search term in the title. allintitle: Find sites with all search terms in the title. inurl: Find sites with one search term in the URL. allinurl: Find sites with all search terms in the URL. site: Limit your search to a specific web site. filetype: Specify a type of document to search.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – intitle: Find sites with one search term in the title.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – intitle: …and ingredient anywhere in the document. This search returns sites with the word shampoo in the title… Find sites with one search term in the title.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – allintitle: Find sites with ALL search terms in the title.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – allintitle: Notice fewer “hits” when shampoo AND ingredient must be found in the title of the page. Find sites with all search terms in the title.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – inurl: Find sites with one search term in the URL.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – inurl: …and ingredient anywhere in the document. This search returns sites with the word shampoo in the URL… Find sites with one search term in the URL.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – allinurl: Find sites with ALL search terms in the URL.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – allinurl: Find sites with all search terms in the URL. Notice fewer “hits” when shampoo AND ingredient must be found in the title of the page.

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – site: Limit your search to a specific web site.

8/2/2007 Example 1 Enter search terms, then qualifier. Query Modifiers – site: Finds elephant race on the Cal State Fullerton site. Limit your search to a specific web site.

8/2/2007 Example 2 Enter search terms, then qualifier. Query Modifiers – site: Finds dinosaur on the Smithsonian Institute site. Limit your search to a specific web site.

8/2/2007 Example 3 Enter search terms, then qualifier. Query Modifiers – site: Limits search of schwarzenegger to official California senate pages. Limit your search to a specific web site.

8/2/2007 Specify a type of document to search. Query Modifiers – filetype:

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – filetype: Specify a type of document to search. pdf – Adobe readable files

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – filetype: Specify a type of document to search. pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – filetype: Specify a type of document to search. pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases

8/2/2007 D’oh! If you get no results from Google Web, try Google Images. Query Modifiers – filetype: Specify a type of document to search. pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases jpg, gif, tif – graphics and photos

8/2/2007 Query Modifiers – filetype: Specify a type of document to search. pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases jpg, gif, tif – graphics and photos ppt – Microsoft PowerPoint presentations

8/2/2007 Key words, plus……site: modifier, plus… …filetype: modifier… …equals… Voilà! Search of shampoo ingredient limited to find only PowerPoint files on official California government pages. Using Multiple Query Modifiers

8/2/2007 GAPS by staggernation.com Searching for all kinds of cookie recipes with chocolate – but not oatmeal?

8/2/2007 This search will return: Chocolate chip cookie recipe Chocolate cookie recipe Chocolate covered cherry cookie recipe

8/2/2007 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:

8/2/2007 Search Engine Showdown

8/2/2007 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

8/2/2007 See More Google

8/2/2007 See More Google This is one of three presentations on Google Search Tips. Others include: Lesser Used Features Lesser Used Databases Advanced Functions