Some Advanced Google

All of the operator definitions in this post are taken directly from Google’s “Help Center.” If you are going to spend any significant time using Google as your search engine of choice, you might wish to review their Help Center’s features.

Selected extractions from Google’s Help Center’s “Advanced Operators” section:

Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search.

Alternate Query Types

cache:

If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page. The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.

link:

The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.

Informational Needs

define:

The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).

This operator allows you to use the Google search interface as a dictionary.

Query modifiers

site:

If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.

Ever get tired of those “search engine unavailable” messages? This operator allows you to use the Google search interface as a website-specific search engine. Be forewarned: The results output is typically less organized, and more difficult to review, than the output from the website’s search engine.