Google Search Commands

While more people use Google than any other search engine on the Web, most do not realize that there is much more to this mammoth search index than meets the eye: an amazing repertoire of specific Google search commands that can help Web searchers find what they're looking for, fast. Here are 13 Google search commands that will make your searches as efficient as possible.

1. Find a specific phrase

If you want Google to find a specific phrase that has words in a specific order, than you want to use quotation marks. Quotation marks tell Google to only retrieve Web pages with your words in the exact order and proximity that you typed them....keep reading

3. Get a definition

Not sure what that word means? You can use Google's Define syntax to find out. Simply type in the word define: quirky (substitute your own word) and you'll instantly be taken to a page of definitions, along with related topics and possible meanings.

5. Search for more than one word within a Web address

Looking for specific words within a Web address? Google's "allinurl" search command retrieves all specified words that appear in the URL of a Web site.....keep reading

6. Search within Web page titles

The term allintitle is a search operator specific to Google that brings back search results restricted to search terms found in Web page titles.

For example, if you only wanted search results with the word "tennis championships", you would use this syntax: allintitle: tennis championships

This would bring back Google search results with the words "tennis championships" in the Web page titles.

8. Search for a word within an URL

If you want to find a specific word and restrict your search only to URLs, you can use the "inurl" search command to accomplish this

10. Find movie information and theater showtimes

Want to go see a movie? Simply type "movies" or "movie" into the Google search field, and Google will retrieve a brief movie summary as well as local theater showtimes

11. Get a weather report from anywhere in the world

Simply type the word "weather" plus the city you're interested in, any city in the world, and Google can retrieve a quick forecast for you.  Quotation Marks " " Use of quotation marks in a Google search tells Google to look for the specific phrase contained within the quotation marks. For example, let's search "Nintendo Wii online play" Mario. Notice that you don't have to include your entire search string in quotes. By putting the name Mario outside of the quotation marks, I am not requiring it to be part of the specific phrase. I am only requiring that the phrase and the name Mario exist somewhere in the page's content. Try putting Mario inside the quotation marks. What happens?

 Avoid unwanted words with a - Put a minus sign ("-") in front of words you want to avoid. This Google command can help for words with multiple meanings. For example, searching bat -baseball will help me to return results on the nocturnal animal and not on a piece of baseball equipment. This is because we are telling the search engine that we want to avoid the word 'baseball'.

 Include Synonyms with ~ Often, several different word choices may return your desired results from a search. Searching with the syntax ~food ~facts indicates that you want to include in your search results synonyms of the words 'food' and 'facts'. For example, your results may contain the word 'nutrition' instead of 'food', as they are synonyms.

Google Search Commands:

 weather: Use the Google weather command (as shown above) to find the weather forecast for a particular city. For example, weather: Pittsburgh, Pa

 phonebook: The phonebook syntax will look up residential phone numbers corresponding to the name and the specified area. For example, try performing the search phonebook: Mike, Smith, New York. Google recommends using the syntax structure: first name, last name, area (where area is either the city, state, area code, or zip code). Notice that the first and last name are separated by a comma, although leaving one out usually works too.

 define: word Need to find a definition fast. Use the Google search operator 'define:' to return a list of definitions that Google finds on the web. Once again, the list of definitions is displayed directly to the page that follows your search. For example, let's try the search command define: diabetes

 filetype: This command is used to restrict your web search to specific file types. For example, form 1040 filetype:pdf will look for the phrase 'form 1040' in only pdf files. For more help on searching a specific file type, go to the filetype search FAQ page.

 movie: title The Google movie command operator will return a list of reviews the first time you use it. However, after entering your location on subsequent pages, Google can use a cookie to remember where you are in order to return showtimes each time that you use the 'movie:' operator. For example, try movie: Happy Feet Google Search Computations:

 Stock and Mutual Fund Quotes Simply enter your stock's ticker symbol into the Google search box. For example, let's get Google's stock quote using the company's stock symbol GOOG. We see a display that links to Google Finance followed by a list of search results based on popularity.

 Calculator Not enough light to power your old solar calculator? Google search commands have got you covered. Just enter your mathematical computation into the search box. Available arithmetic operators include + – * / for basic computations. Use the command '% of' to discover, for example, 45% of 60. More examples of operations include:

o 2^16 o sqrt(-4) o half a cup in teaspoons

 Currency Conversion Need to figure out how much your two bucks will get you in Canada or perhaps Germany. Google currency conversion is fairly intuitive and easy to use. Here are some example queries.

o 3.5 USD in GBP o currency of Brazil in Malaysian money o 5 British pounds in South Korean money o 2.2 USD per gallon in INR per litre

Webmaster Essential Google Search Commands:

 link: Use the Google search command link: to find out how many web pages online link to your web site. For example, typing link:www.searchengineknowledge.com into the Google search bar will tell me which web pages contain links to my web site.

 site: Using the site: command will restrict your search results to the website that you specify. For example, movies site:www.campushopper.com will search only the web site Campushopper.com for the term 'movies'. Webmasters can use the site: command with an html form to create a search engine for their website. An even easier way to add a search engine to your web site is to use Google Site Flavored Search, which requires almost no html coding knowledge. If you want Google Adsense links to appear in your site's search results then check out Adsense for Search at Google.

 Include Synonyms with ~ Often, several different word choices may return your desired results from a search. Searching with the syntax ~food ~facts indicates that you want to include in your search results synonyms of the words 'food' and 'facts'. For example, your results may contain the word 'nutrition' instead of 'food', as they are synonyms.