Quick Tips to Custom Searching with Google

These are some syntaxes and examples of using Google’s advanced search.

To search for a keyword, without typing it in Google Search box, type the following

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=searchterm

In case of multiple strings, use + operator in the URL.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0

To see results from pages updated in last 3 months only, add &as_qdr=m3 at the end of the URL.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_qdr=m3

Valid options are 3 months [&as_qdr=m3], 6 months [&as_qdr=m6] and last one year [&as_qdr=y].

To search and return results from English pages only, use &lr=lang_en at the end of the URL

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&lr=lang_en

To search for only PDF files for given search string, use &as_filetype=pdf at the end of the URL.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_filetype=pdf

Other valid file type searches are MS Word document [&as_filetype=doc], MS Excel [&as_filetype=xls], MS Powerpoint [&as_filetype=ppt], Rich Text Format [&as_filetype=rtf] and Adobe Postscript [&as_filetype=ps].

To exclude certain file type from your search results, use &as_ft=e (exclude) and &as_filetype=pdf together.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_filetype=pdf&as_ft=e

To return results from pages where your search string appear in title, use &as_occt=title

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_occt=title [you can also type allintitle: web 2.0 in Google search box]

Other valid options are &as_occt=body [only in text in pages], &as_occt=url [all in URL] and &as_occt=links [all in links to the pages]

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_occt=body [use allintext: web in Google Search box]

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_occt=url [use allinurl: web in Google Search box]

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=web+2.0&as_occt=links [use allinanchor: web in Google Search box]

To limit your search results to only one domain, use site:www.domain.com at the end of your search string in search box.

To exclude results from a domain, use -site:www.domain.com at the end of your search string.