Google Searches: Useful Operators

Add the following operators (examples given) to your search terms to make Google searching more focused and effective:

allinurl: google faq – find website associated with that name (example yields www.google.com/policies/privacy/faq/)

define: life – dictionary definition of word "life"

filetype:ppt – find PPT on your topic (also find doc, pdf, xls). [Short form: ext:]

info:cfc.dnd.ca – shows information about cfc.dnd.ca home page. (Can help to check authenticity of websites)

site:forces.gc.ca – a useful way to search sites and entire domains (.gov, .ca), often better than the search engines provided with the site (e.g., forces.gc.ca) (note: omit the www at the front end of URLs)

Also:

-"not this expression" – makes sure the expression is not included in the search e.g., Terminator -3

+2 – the + makes sure the term is included

For more options, see http://www.google.com.au/advanced_search

Within Google News, you can specify the news source, e.g., source:new_york_times