If I have learned anything since I started this blog is to find anything in Google almost momentarily.
I can quickly find the source of a quote, the original image or the official documentation for anything.
At college they used to say that you don’t need to (and you cannot) know answers to all questions: It’s how fast and efficiently you can find the answers. If that’s true, I am certainly an A+ student. My searching ability has been a huge help in many situations (beyond my professional life where it’s an integral part of my life)
And it’s not just about using Google’s advanced operators. It’s actually about combining them.
***If you want to get better at searching, do join my premium course on how to find anything.***
Contents
Example #1 Find PDF downloads on .gov sites
Type:
[flu shot ext:pdf site:gov]
This is a good way to find documents on any topic to print out and take home. Great trick to help in online research.
Example #2 Find documents that mention a word in the text
Sometimes we just need to find articles that mention a name or a concept without focusing on it. Here’s how:
[Mark Zuckerberg -intitle:Mark -intitle:Zuckerberg]
Example #3 Find more Twitter accounts that relate to an organization
Looking for more Twitter accounts that represent a company or tweet about it? Google is a much better source than Twitter search for that!
Type:
[site:twitter.com @nytimes -inurl:status -inurl:hashtag -inurl:lists]
{-inurl:status -inurl:hashtag -inurl:lists} force Google to exclude Twitter lists, hashtags and updates from search results leaving it with only Twitter profiles containing your search term
Example #4 Search several sites simultaneously
Do you fond yourself searching the same sites again and again? Here’s a way to search them all at a time!
[Cam McCaul site:vine.com OR site:vimeo.com OR site:youtube.com]
Example #5 Find forum discussions on any topic
Forums remain my source of the most truthful unbiased information on the web. It’s hard to fake an authentic forum discussion: You can always see how established and trusted any user is. The truth is revealed in communication! Therefore I often search for forum discussions when researching any product or phenomenon.
Here’s how to force Google to search forum discussions:
[tennis ball machine inurl:forum OR inurl:forums]
Don’t forget to download the attached document containing all the mentioned search queries, clickable links and screenshots! Run some commands right away to see them in action!
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Ann….This is some real good stuff, as usual. Bookmarked. I want to be like you when I grow up. I am really enjoying your growth hacks emails, as well. Used the YouTube one just the other day. Most of it we were already doing, but found the annotations very useful. Hope all is well 🙂
The “OR” one’s is really interesting, i didn’t knew it before, thanks for sharing 🙂
Glad you found it useful, David!
This is so good I bookmarked it AND printed it.
THANKYOU
Great stuff! Amazing how much good information you can find with a search! 🙂
A lot of tricks search on Google even do a barrel role, or inpostauthor search… definitely love them new search skills.
I really was not knowing this. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your valuable information. We strive to provide our candidates with excellent care and we take your comments to heart.As always, we appreciate your confidence and trust in us.
Hi Ann,
Very useful information shared. Love how to search several sites simultaneously. Thanks for sharing the tips and tricks.
I never used “OR” operator in a search query and never heard about twitter search. Thanks for sharing these useful information related to Google’s search operators.
I was searching for search operators to find forums and came across this post, good work Ann! Example 3 is great, had no idea you can find twitter user names for an organisation. Thanks
This is really great stuff and definitely it’s gonna help me a lot in managing my brand name. Thanks again Anny
This is a great resource!
I’m using few of them search operator, But this list gonna take me to the next level.
Bookmarked this post for feature reference.
Thanks for sharing this useful resources, Ann!
Fantastic Resource! Thanks Ann. This is definitely bookmarked – finding documents with a specific word in it will probably be one of my favourite search operations from here on out to find exactly what I need quickly. Great stuff.
Hi Ann,
First of all, I would like to appreciate your all efforts with this share!!
The “OR” ones are really interesting, I didn’t know it before,
I Bookmarked this post for feature reference. thanks for sharing.
Hey Ann, Your article is just fantastic and very informative.I was unaware of the twitter search and also about the pdf from .gov sites.It is very helpful for me. Keep sharing your valuable knowledge.Thank you!
Hey Ann,
First of all, I would like to appreciate your all efforts with this share!!
The “OR” ones are really interesting, I didn’t know it before,
I Bookmarked this post for feature reference. thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your good website and information !
HI Ann Smarty,
I was searching for a query to find forums but after reading the detailed article of MOZ Ahrefs and Search Engine Land I was still not able to find Search operator to find relevant Forums. You discussed this thing and that is exactly I was searching for. Thank you so much for adding the right thing in your article 🙂 Very Impressed – got my problem fixed
You are very welcome! Glad it helped!