Google (and most other search engines) have special operators and search url suffixes that many internet users are unaware of. Here is a fresh list for your searching pleasure.
intitle: Restricts the search to the titles of the web pages, for example if you want to search for the web pages having WordPress or Blogging in the title, use the syntax intitle:WordPress or intitle: “digital photography” (multiple words can be grouped into a phrase by putting them inside quotes).
inurl: If you include this keyword in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the URL (address of the website). The query inurl:teaching will return documents that mention the words teaching in their URL.
intext: The query using intext:term results in documents containing the term in the text/content. For instance: intext:Globalization will return documents mentioning the term globalization. Additionally, you can use allintext:term with phrases or combination of words.
site: If you want to search for a specific site or domain, use the site keyword as follows — site:microsoft.com for site specific search and site:edu for enlisting domain specific sites.
link: The query link:http://www.example.com enlists the pages that point to the specified URL http://www.example.com. For example, to find pages that point to Google Dictionary enter the query link:www.google.com/dictionary.
filetype: Use this to search for a particular file-type. Use filetype:suffix wherein you need to specify the extension of file as a suffix. This special syntax enables Google to search for all the files whose names end in specified suffix. filetype:pdf searches for all the Adobe Acrobat files.
related: The query related:URL enlists the web pages similar to the web page you specify as the URL. For instance, related:www.wikipedia.com will list web pages that are similar to the Wikipedia home page.
define: If your search query contains define:term, Google displays the definitions of the term from across the pages on the web. This search operator is useful for finding definitions of words, phrases and acronyms. This comes as a handy dictionary.
Range Specific Search: If you want to search for some news or innovations in certain particular time period, use two periods in succession without space like “..“. To enlist what was in news from 15th Aug 2011-15th Sept 2011, you can frame your query as news 15/08/2011..15/09/2011.
safesearch: If you want to exclude unsafe, profanity, and other types of hate content stuff from your search results, use the syntax safesearch:term.
Google cached version of a url: cache:url
To locate pages that contain links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url: info:url
To restrict the search to links and not in text or title: allinlinks:keyword
To search only specified file types: filetype:filetypes
In order to view the name and address of a phone number: phone:keyword
To lookup the search query in a stock index: stock:keyword
Some Interesting [Near] Realtime Google Search Operators:
This list shows what they do:
&tbs=rltm:1 [real time results, not currently operational]
&tbs=qdr:s [past second]
&tbs=qdr:n [past minute]
&tbs=qdr:h [past hour]
&tbs=qdr:d [past 24 hours (day)]
&tbs=qdr:w [past week]
&tbs=qdr:m [past month]
&tbs=qdr:y [past year]
A numerical value can be added to the end of the s, n, h, d, w, m, y to specify number of unit. For example, s30 will search past 30 seconds, n30 for past 30 minutes, h12 for past 12 hours, y2 for past 2 years.
Google+ Profile Search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ASP.NET&tbs=prfl:e Note the “&tbs=prfl:e” suffix.
filter=0 Eliminates the “omitted results” or “similar results” filter, and allows all results to show in the SERP.
s_q=should+contain The results should contain all of the words entered, same as normal search
as_epq=must+include It’s the exact phrase that you’re looking for. It can also be entered in brackets like “must include”
as_oq=any+of+these The results should contain any of these words, the search operator is OR
as_eq=none+of+these The results should contain none of these words, the search operator is -
as_dt=e What as_eq is for queries as_dt is for operators, as_dt=e excludes the following operator, as_dt=i includes it, e.g. as_dt=e&as_filetype=pdf returns results excluding pdfs, can also be entered using the - in front of the operator
as_filetype=pdf Returns results of a certain filetype, e.g. pdf, can be entered into query filetype:
as_lq Returns a sample of links to any site, also usable via the link: command
as_sitesearch Search a specified site, you can also use the operator site:
as_rq Shows a sample of related websites, also addressable using related:
as_occt=any Specify where keywords shall occur on the page
any
title
body
url
links
as_nlo=1 Numbers range starts with 1
as_nhi=44 Numbers range ends with 44 a range. It can be typed into the search bar using 2 full stops .. between the first and last number
as_rights=cc_attribute This attribute limits the search results to pages that have certain rights. It is quite useful for things like image or graphics search. The possible attributes are:
cc_publicdomain
cc_attribute
cc_sharealike
cc_noncommercial
cc_nonderived
You can combine all of these attributes in one query putting them in brackets and combining them via the | character.
num=100 Sets the number of results per page. It can only be used if Google Instant results are turned off. Instant limits results to 10 per page.
pws=0 Parameter that allows you to turn-off personalization
cd=2 Passes down the keyword rank clicked. In analytics suites this can come in handy if you’d like to track the keyword rank. A guide how this can be applied can be found here
pq=previous+query Shows the previous query. This parameter appears when switching queries during one Google session. It might be quite valuable to extract this parameter for analytics purposes to detect search chains.
oq=original+query Shows the original query. Try searching for one thing, say sunflowers and then searching on for sunflower seeds. You’ll notice in the URL that a parameter oq=sunflower+X appears. X might be “seeds” or just nil depending on whether or not you have clicked on the Google suggest query. The query parameter will show the full query “&q=sunflower+seeds”, though.
filter=0 Include omitted results
complete=0 Turn auto-suggest on or off
nfpr=1 Turn off auto-correction of spelling
ncr=1 No country redirect: Allows you to set the Google country engine you would like to use despite your current geographic location. Though it works best if no Google cookie has been set yet.
safe=on Turns the adult content filter on or off
biw=1920 Browser inner width, here 1920px
bih=832 Browser inner height, here 832px
start=30 Show results rankings from this number, so 30 is page three for 10 results per page
sa= User search behavior parameter
sa=N – User searched
sa=X – User clicked on related searches in the SERP
btnG=”Search” Text that appears on the search button (customization option for including search on one’s own site), here “Search”
newwindow=1 Open the results in a new window
navclient/client/sourceid=ie7 Where the search originated from, e.g.:
navclient – Google toolbar
navclient-ff – Google search toolbar for Firefox
firefox-a – Firefox search box
chrome
rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official Source of query with version of the client and language set.
source=univ Google navigational parameter specifying where you came from, here universal search
tbo=1 Always show search tools in the left sidebar
prmd= Parameter that determines which of Google’s vertical search engines are suggested in the left sidebar besides web, they can be combined, the most important ones are:
prmd=a – only applications
prmd=b – only books
prmd=c – only places
prmd=d – only discussions
prmd=i – only images
prmd=n – only news
prmd=s – only shopping
prmd=p – only patents
prmd=u – none (only web)
prmd=v – only video
stick= The stick parameter is one of the newest additions that we will likely see more and more. It encodes the knowledge graph box that is shown on the right next to many different queries. Try playing around with it.
Example: https://www.google.com/search?q=sex&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLQz9U3MCkvLAIAW7x_LwwAAAA - this uses the unique identifier for Marilyn Monroe
