What happens if I Google, “google?”

As I was playing with Google searching the other day, I stumbled across some ways to search that might be helpful to you in specific situations.  Check these out.

Search Terms

You can use the minus sign to exclude certain words from your search.

Enter this search: SQL -Oracle

To find this: A list of all pages that refer to SQL but do not have the word Oracle on them.

You can search all pages that link to your site.

Enter this search: www.centriq.com:link

To find this:  A list of all pages on the web that have a clickable link to your site.

You can search a specific web site.

Enter this search: sql site:www.centriq.com

To find this: A list of pages on Centriq's site that have the word "SQL" on them.

You can search the contents of a url.

Enter this search: inurl:msdn SQL

To find this: All pages that have a URL that contains "MSDN" and have the term "SQL" somewhere on the page.

Of course you can mix and match these queries with AND, NOT and OR, to find combinations of results.

You can also either directly type the following query stings, OR dynamically generate then through asp code for some creative useful searching to users on your site.

Search Parameters

Enter this address:  http://www.google.com/search?q=sql

To find this:  All pages that have "SQL" on them.

Enter this address: http://www.google.com/search?q=sql&as_eq=oracle

To find this: A list of all pages that refer to SQL but do not have the word Oracle on them.  (notice, same as above)

Enter this address:  http://www.google.com/search?as_sitesearch=www.centriq.com

To find this:  Every page at www.centriq.com.

Enter this address:  http://www.google.com/search?q=techsmartkc&as_sitesearch=www.centriq.com

To find this:  Only pages at www.centriq.com that have the term "techsmartkc" on them.

You will find a list of how to use all search terms and search parameters at https://developers.google.com/search-appliance/documentation/50/xml_reference

Happy searching, I hope this article sparks some creativity and encourages you to use Google in an innovative way.