So you have been around the inter-webs, you know how to utilize the awesome power of search engines, you know how to find every website, any file, any song lyric, any mp3 file or any movie clip as long as it exists in the internet somewhere. You know how to find it.

But did you know that the popular search engines also has tools built in to their search engines to help you narrow down your search results to help you find what you are looking for?

Here’s a list of the more popular and more widely used search operators.

Google Search Operators:

• site:

If you use site: in Google, it will restrict the results to only the pages belongin to a specific URL.

Example:

site:tech4idiots.org – the results will contain all the pages and blog posts that are within the tech4idiots.org website

• allinurl:

If you use allinurl: in Google, it will restrict the results to only websites or pages the contain all the query terms that you have specified in the URL of the website.

Example:

allinurl:iphone apps – the results will only show websites or pages that has both the terms “iphone” and “apps” in the URL of the site.

• inurl:

If you use inurl: in Google, it will restrict the results to only websites or pages the contain the query terms that you have specified in the URL of the website.

Example:

allinurl:apps – the results will only show websites or pages that contains the term “apps” in the URL of the site, it will also show in the results websites of pages that has terms like  ”iphone apps” or “android apps” or “blackberry apps” in their URL.

• allintitle:

If you use allintitle: in Google, it restricts results to only webpages that contains all the query terms that you have specified.

Example:

allintitle: magic tricks – will result to show only websites that has both the words “Magic Tricks” in the title of the page.

• intitle:

If you use intitle: in Google, it restricts results to only the webpages that contain the query term that you have specified. It will only show websites that mention the query term that you have used.

Example:

intitle:tricks – the results will only shows websites or pages that contain the term “Trick” in the title, may it be about card tricks or magic tricks or pool tricks, it will show up on the search result.

• inanchor:

If you use inanchor: in Google, it restricts results to pages containing  the query term that you have specified in the anchor text on links to the page.

Example:

inanchor: best  - the results will only show websites or pages that the anchor text on links to the pages contain the words “best,” “parks,” and “Toronto.”

Note:

An anchor text is the text that is hyper-linked to different webpage or a different location on the current page. An anchor text is very important to those in the SEO field. When you use the search operator allinanchor: , do not include any other search operators.

• allinanchor:

If you use allinanchor: in Google, it restricts results to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on links to the page.

Example:

allinanchor: best parks Toronto – the results will only show websites or pages that the anchor text on links to the pages contain the words “best,” “parks,” and “Toronto.”

Note:

An anchor text is the text that is hyper-linked to different webpage or a different location on the current page. An anchor text is very important to those in the SEO field. When you use the search operator allinanchor: , do not include any other search operators.

• +:

This is usually used as a wild card on search terms, this is usually included at the end of the other search operators.

Example:

site:tech4idiots.org +ragnarok – It will restrict the results showing only pages from tech4idiots.org that contains the term “Ragnarok” in the content.

another example

allintitle:new psp game + Ragnarok – It will restrict the results showing only websites and pages the contains the terms “new” “psp” “game” in the title AND contains the term “Ragnarok” in the content.

 

• -:

This is usually used as a wild card on search terms, this is usually included at the end of the other search operators.

Example:

site:tech4idiots.org -ragnarok – It will restrict the results showing only pages from tech4idiots.org that does not contain the term “Ragnarok” in the content.

another example

allintitle:new psp game -Ragnarok – It will restrict the results showing only websites and pages the contains the terms “new” “psp” “game” in the title AND does not contains the term “Ragnarok” in the content.

 

Yahoo Search Operators

Yahoo also has search operators which give similar results from Google search operators. Here is a list of the more popular Yahoo search operators:

• linkdomain:

Used to show all the backlinks or inbound links to a specific website

Example:
linkdomain:tech4idiots.org – the results will show all the websites and pages that contains links to tech4idiots.org

• site:

Used to find all the pages within a specific domain and all its subdomains.

Example:
site:tech4idiots.org – the results will show all the pages from tech4idiots.org

• url:

Used to find a specific document in Yahoo’s index.

Example:
url:http://edit.autos.yahoo.com/repair/tree/0.html

• intitle:

Used to find a specific keyword as part of the indexed titles.

Example:
intitle:Bulgarian – same as from google search operator.

 

Bing Search Operators
Bing also has the same functions those found on Yahoo on Google search operators, here I am only gonna list one Bing search operator that I found very useful.

• linkfromdomain:

Used to find all the the other websites and pages that a certain domain has outgoing links to.

Example:
linkfromdomain:tech4idiots.org – It will show all the websites and pages that tech4idiots.org has, may it be from subpages or other individual pages.

linkfromdomain: is a great tool to use in order to check wether a website has links or even hidden links to other questionable websites.