Faithless
01-28-2004, 08:44 AM
Hidden Google Tools (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3304771)
Even if you consider yourself a Google expert, these "hidden" tools and resources let you push the search engine's capabilities to the max.
If you want all of Google's tools and options conveniently displayed on a single screen, try FaganFinder. I like it because I am reminded of all the choices I have and settings I can tweak, including toggling the Duplicates Filter on or off, using the file format search, and setting the number of results per page. It even has handy links for typing non-English letters.
Right now, the only search engines that support the "NEAR" operator (search for this word within X words of that word) are Alta Vista and MSN. But there's a nifty Google hack called Google API Proximity Search (GAPS) that lets you look for two words within one, two or three words of each other.
Google has a synonym feature that lets you search for not only the word you type in the search box but also for some common synonyms of the word. The synonym symbol is the tilde (~), and the syntax is ~word. For example, if you type ~food in the search box, you will also retrieve web pages that have the word cooking, nutrition, recipe or restaurant. Sometimes that's a nifty tool, but it has its drawbacks. I tried ~aluminum and it not only retrieved pages with the British equivalent, aluminium, and words with the atomic symbol AL, but also pages that mentioned Weird Al Yankovic, Al Jazeera, Al-Anon, and the official page for the state of Alabama. Use this tool when you are looking for a broad category of concepts, and be prepared for a few unexpected results.
One of my favorite Google tools is WebQuotes, through which you can find out what other people are saying about a particular site. Type in a URL, and you'll see how other sites are describing that site. It's a great way to suss out fraudulent sites. Try, for example, typing in www.gatt.org and see how it's described. (Yes, WebQuotes is designed for key words, not URLs, but I really like this application.)
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Even if you consider yourself a Google expert, these "hidden" tools and resources let you push the search engine's capabilities to the max.
If you want all of Google's tools and options conveniently displayed on a single screen, try FaganFinder. I like it because I am reminded of all the choices I have and settings I can tweak, including toggling the Duplicates Filter on or off, using the file format search, and setting the number of results per page. It even has handy links for typing non-English letters.
Right now, the only search engines that support the "NEAR" operator (search for this word within X words of that word) are Alta Vista and MSN. But there's a nifty Google hack called Google API Proximity Search (GAPS) that lets you look for two words within one, two or three words of each other.
Google has a synonym feature that lets you search for not only the word you type in the search box but also for some common synonyms of the word. The synonym symbol is the tilde (~), and the syntax is ~word. For example, if you type ~food in the search box, you will also retrieve web pages that have the word cooking, nutrition, recipe or restaurant. Sometimes that's a nifty tool, but it has its drawbacks. I tried ~aluminum and it not only retrieved pages with the British equivalent, aluminium, and words with the atomic symbol AL, but also pages that mentioned Weird Al Yankovic, Al Jazeera, Al-Anon, and the official page for the state of Alabama. Use this tool when you are looking for a broad category of concepts, and be prepared for a few unexpected results.
One of my favorite Google tools is WebQuotes, through which you can find out what other people are saying about a particular site. Type in a URL, and you'll see how other sites are describing that site. It's a great way to suss out fraudulent sites. Try, for example, typing in www.gatt.org and see how it's described. (Yes, WebQuotes is designed for key words, not URLs, but I really like this application.)
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