Search Operators Archives

Farhan Fawzer

October 26, 2011

Google removes (+) search operator

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since the last post and I had been very very busy on a brand new SEO project on a tourism website of my own. I also have been working on getting my own SEO website and blog which you might see live by mid November.

There had been plenty of things happening around as far as SEO’s are concerned and specially the changes Google had been making, including the PR checkers not working as a result of an update to the link (which is resolved now lasted a couple of days). The panda update which sent some sites down the drain by taking off up to 35 to 40% of the site visits. Launch of a new tab called Search Engine Optimization on Google Analytics and the list goes on.

If you had been following my Blog from the beginning and read one of my posts about Search Operators, effectively used the Search Operators, this might be useful news for you. Google had silently removed the + operator from search results, so this will not have any influence when used on a search term. However, the (-) operator and the rest are still working.

Have yourself a try copy the bold tour +packages and paste on the Google search bar and hit enter.

Farhan Fawzer

February 14, 2011

Google Search Operators

Many of you who use Google as your preferred search engine might find the following operators useful, efficient and most of all “time-saving”.

You do not need special training to search for the contact number of a leading local bank or the website of a supermarket in town on Google. It’s as simple as just typing in the name of the bank or supermarket and hitting the search button, which will return your required information instantly.

What if you are looking for a particular product of which the name is only half known or not so popular?

On such instances it is not so easy as just typing those words (only if you remember). It may take you hours to find the exact piece of information you are after. Time is precious and you cannot afford to spend hours searching for something which you require immediately.

This is when using search operators comes handy, it is efficient and will save you time, effort and resources. If you find this information useful please email or share this with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit. You can also use the print option to get a printout for yourself.

This Search		Finds Pages Containing…
biking Sri Lanka		the words biking and Sri Lanka
recycle steel OR iron		information on recycling steel or recycling iron
“I have a dream“		the exact phrase I have a dream
salsa –dance		the word salsa but NOT the word dance
Louis +I France		information about Louis the First (I), weeding out other kings of France
castle ~glossary		glossaries about castles, as well as dictonaries, lists of terms, terminology, etc.
fortune-telling		all forms of the term, whether spelled as a single word, a phrase, or hyphenated
define:imbroglio		definitions of the word imbroglio from the Web

Google also serves as a Calculator

Calculator
Operators	Meaning	Type Into Search Box (& Results)
*+ – /**	basic arithmetic	*12 + 34 – 56 7 / 8**
% of	percentage of	45% of 39
^ or **	raise to a power	2^5 or 25**
old units in new units	convert units	300 Euros in USD, 130 lbs in kg, or 31 in hex

city1 city2	Book flights.	sfo bos (Book flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS).)
site:	Search only one website or domain.	Halloween site:www.census.gov (Search for information on Halloween gathered by the US Census Bureau.)
[#]..[#]	Search within a range of numbers.	Dave Barry pirate 2002..2006 (Search for Dave Barry articles mentioning pirates written in these years.)
filetype: (or ext:)	Find documents of the specified type.	Form 1098-T IRS filetype:pdf (Find the US tax form 1098-T in PDF format.)
link:	Find linked pages, i.e., show pages that point to the URL.	link:warriorlibrarian.com (Find pages that link to Warrior Librarian‘s website.)

More of these type of search operators can be found at http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html