Super Searcher: Enhancing Your Online Search Super Powers!

Super Searcher: Enhancing Your Online Search Super Powers!

Search Engine Shortcuts – Quick Reference Sheet

Tips for quickly and efficiently searching the top three search engines: Google, Yahoo, and Bing!.

For tips on searching Google, the following pages may help: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en&ref_topic=3081620

Advanced Search: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

Google Shortcut / Find Pages that Have… /
Define (The definition of any single word) / Define serendipity
+ (Calculation – Addition) / 5+2
- (Calculation – Subtraction) / 5-2
* (Calculation – Multiplication) / 5*2
/ (Calculation – Division) / 5/2
% of (Percentage) / 50% of 250
Unit Conversions / 1 cup in oz or 1 Dollar in Yen
@ (Social Media Search) / @twitter mobile health (Twitter posts with mobile health)
$ (Search for a Price) / Camera $400 (Cameras under $400)
# (Search hashtags) / #throwbackthursday
-word (Exclude a word in search) / Jaguar speed –car
“…” (Exact match/phrase search) / “tallest building”
“..” (Range of Number Search) / Camera $50..$100
OR – Combine searches / Marathon OR race
Site: (Search within a Specific Domain Site Search) / Site:.gov or site:youtube.com
Related: (Find similar websites to a known site.) / Related:time.com
Info: (Details on a specific site) / Info:medlineplus.gov
Filetype: (locate a specific formatted page) / Filtetype:PDF

Advanced Search Keywords: https://help.bing.microsoft.com/#apex/18/en-us/10001/0

Keyword / Definition / Example /
contains: / Keeps results focused on sites that have links to the file types that you specify. / To search for websites that contain links to Windows Media Audio (.wma) files, typemusic contains:wma.
ext: / Returns only webpages with the filename extension that you specify. / To find reports created only in DOCX format, type your subject, followed byext:docx.
filetype: / Returns only webpages created in the file type that you specify. / To find reports created in PDF format, type your subject, followed byfiletype:pdf.
inanchor: orinbody: orintitle: / These keywords return webpages that contain the specified term in the metadata, such as the anchor, body, or title of the site, respectively. Specify only one term per keyword. You can string multiple keyword entries as needed. / To find webpages that contain “msn” in the anchor, and the terms “spaces” and “magog” in the body, typeinanchor:msn inbody:spaces inbody:magog.
ip: / Finds sites that are hosted by a specific IP address. The IP address must be a dotted quad address. Type theip:keyword, followed by the IP address of the website. / TypeIP:207.46.249.252.
language: / Returns webpages for a specific language. Specify the language code directly after thelanguage:keyword. / To see webpages only in English about antiques, type"antiques" language:en.
loc:orlocation: / Returns webpages from a specific country or region. Specify the country or region code directly after theloc:keyword. To focus on two or more languages, use a logicalORto group the languages. / To see webpages about sculpture from the U.S. or Great Britain, typesculpture (loc:US OR loc:GB). For a list of language codes that you can use with Bing, seeCountry, region, and language codes.
prefer: / Adds emphasis to a search term or another operator to help focus the search results. / To find results about football but that primarily pertain to the organization, typefootball prefer:organization.
site: / Returns webpages that belong to the specified site. To focus on two or more domains, use a logicalORto group the domains. You can usesite:to search for web domains, top level domains, and directories that are not more than two levels deep. You can also search for webpages that contain a specific search word on a site. / To see webpages about heart disease from the BBC or CNN websites, type"heart disease" (site:bbc.co.uk OR site:cnn.com). To find webpages about the PC version of Halo on the Microsoft website, typesite:www.microsoft.com/games/pc halo.
feed: / Finds RSS or Atom feeds on a website for the terms you search for. / To find RSS or Atom feeds about football, typefeed:football.
hasfeed: / Finds webpages that contain an RSS or Atom feed on a website for the terms you search for. / To find webpages on the New York Times website that contain RSS or Atom feeds, typesite:www.nytimes.com hasfeed:football.
url: / Checks whether the listed domain or web address is in the Bing index. / To verify that the Microsoft domain is in the index, typeurl:microsoft.com.

For additional Yahoo! search tips, visit: http://www.searchcommands.com/yahoo/

Keyword / Definition /
site: / Restrict a search to a single site
hostname: / Restrict a search to a single host name
link: / List pages which link to a page
url: / Find one specific URL in the search database
inurl: / Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address
intitle: / Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title
define / Include a definition for the keyword
facts / Include encyclopedia entry for keyword
convert / Show a variety of unit conversion rates, for example currency or distance
patent / Link to detailed information for the matching patent number keyword
synonym / Include synonyms for keyword and link to definitions of each
+ / Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results
- / Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), under cooperative agreement No. UG4LM012340 with the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.