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1.6. Mixing Syntax
There was a time
when you couldn't mix Google's
special syntax elements; you were limited to one per query. Even as
Google released ever more powerful special syntax elements, not being
able to combine them for their composite power stunted many a search.This has since changed. While there remain some syntax elements that
you just can't mix, there are plenty to combine in
clever and powerful ways. A thoughtful combination can do wonders to
narrow a search.
1.6.1. How Not to Mix Syntax
There are some simple rules to follow when mixing syntax elements.
These, for the most part, revolve around how not
to mix. Don't mix syntax elements that will cancel each
other out, such as: site:ucla.edu -inurl:ucla Here you're saying you want all results to come from
ucla.edu , but that site results should not have
the string "ucla" in the results.
Obviously, that's not going to produce many URLs. Don't overuse single syntax elements, as in: site:com site:edu While you might think you're asking for results from
either .com or .edu sites,
what you're actually saying is that site results
should come from both simultaneously. Obviously, a single result can
come from only one domain. Take the example perl
site:edu site:com. This search
will get you exactly zero results. Why? Because a result page cannot
come from a .edu domain and a
.com domain at the same time. If you want
results from .edu and .com
domains only, rephrase your search like this: perl (site:edu | site:com) With the pipe character (|),
you're specifying that you want results to come
either from the .edu or the
.com domain. Don't use allinurl: or
allintitle: when mixing syntax. It takes a careful
hand not to misuse these in a mixed search. Instead, stick to
inurl: or intitle:. If you
don't put allinurl: in exactly
the right place, you'll create odd search results.
Let's look at this example: allinurl:perl intitle:programming At first glance, it looks like you're searching for
the string "perl" in the result URL
and the word "programming" in the
title. And you're right: this will work fine. But
what happens if you move allinurl: to the right of
the query? intitle:programming allinurl:perl This won't bring any results. Stick to
inurl: and intitle:, which are
much more forgiving of where you put them in a query.The same advice goes for allintext: and
allinanchor:. Don't use so much syntax that you get too narrow,
like: title:agriculture site:ucla.edu inurl:search You might find that it's too narrow to give you any
useful results. If you're trying to find something
so specific that you think you'll need a narrow
query, start by building a little bit of the query at a time. Say you
want to find plant databases at UCLA. Instead of starting with the
query: title:plants site:ucla.edu inurl:database Try something simpler: databases plants site:ucla.edu and then try adding syntax to keywords you've
already established in your search results: intitle:plants databases site:ucla.edu or: intitle:database plants site:ucla.edu
1.6.2. How to Mix Syntax
If you're trying to narrow down search results, the
intitle: and site: syntax
elements are your best bet.
1.6.2.1 Titles and sites
For example, say you want to get an idea of what databases are
offered by the state of Texas. Run this search: intitle:search intitle:records site:tx.us You'll find something on the order of 30 very
targeted results. And, of course, you can narrow down your search
even more by adding keywords: birth intitle:search intitle:records site:tx.us It doesn't seem to matter whether you put plain
keywords at the beginning or the end of the search query; I put them
at the beginning because they're easier to keep up
with.The site: syntax, unlike site syntax on other
search engines, allows you to get as general as a domain suffix
(site:com) or as specific as a domain or subdomain
(site:thomas.loc.gov). So if
you're looking for records in El Paso, you can use
this query: intitle:records site:el-paso.tx.us and you'll get approximately one result.
1.6.2.2 Title and URL
Sometimes you want to find a certain type of information, but you
don't want to narrow by type. Instead, you want to
narrow by theme of information (e.g., you want help or a search
engine). That's when you need to search in the URL.The inurl: syntax will search for a string in the
URL but won't count finding it within a larger word.
So, for example, if you search for inurl:research,
Google will not find pages from
1.6.3. The Antisocial Syntax Elements
The antisocial syntax elements are the
ones that won't mix and should be used individually
for maximum effect. If you try to use them with other syntax
elements, you won't get any results.The syntax elements that request special
informationstocks:,
rphonebook:,
bphonebook:,
and phonebook:
are all antisocial. That is, you can't mix them and
expect to get a reasonable result.The other antisocial syntax is link:, which shows
pages that have a link to a specified URL. Wouldn't
it be great if you could specify what domains you want the pages to
be from? Sorry, you can't. The
link: syntax
does not mix with anything elsenot even plain old keywords.For example, say you want to find out what pages link to
O'Reilly Media, Inc., but you don't
want to include pages from the .edu domain. The
query link:www.oreilly.com -site:edu will not work
because the link: syntax does not work in
combination. Well, that's not quite correct; you
will get results, but they'll be for the phrase
"link:www.oreilly.com" from domains
that are not .edu .If you want to search for links and exclude the
.edu domain, there's no single
command that will absolutely work. This one's a good
try, though: inanchor:oreilly -inurl:oreilly -site:edu This search looks for the word
"oreilly" in anchor
text , the text that's used to define
links; excludes pages that contain
"oreilly" in the search
result (e.g., oreilly.com ); and,
finally, excludes those pages that come from the
.edu domain.But this type of search is nowhere near complete. It finds only those
links to O'Reilly that include the string
"oreilly": if someone creates a
link such as <a
href="http://perl.oreilly.com/">Camel
Book</a>, it won't be found
by the preceding query. Furthermore, there are other domains that
contain the string "oreilly," and
there may be domains that link to
"oreilly" that contain the string
"oreilly" but
aren't oreilly.com . You could
alter the string slightly, to omit the oreilly.com
site itself but not other sites containing the string
"oreilly": inanchor:oreilly -site:oreilly.com -site:edu However, you would still be including many O'Reilly
sites XML.com and
MacDevCenter.com , for instancethat
aren't at oreilly.com .
1.6.4. All the Possibilities
While it is possible to write down every syntax-mixing combination
and briefly explain how they might be useful, there
wouldn't be room for much else in this book.Experiment. Experiment a lot. Constantly keep in mind that most of
these syntax elements do not stand alone, and you can get more done
by combining them than by using them individually Depending on what kind of research you are doing, different patterns
will emerge over time. For example, you may discover that focusing on
only PDF documents
(filetype:pdf) finds you the results you need. You
may discover that you should concentrate on specific file types in
specific domains (filetype:ppt
site:tompeters.com). Mix up the syntax in as many
ways as is relevant to your research and see what you get.As with anything else, the more you use Google's
special syntax, the more natural it will become to you. And Google is
constantly adding more, much to the delight of regular web combers.If, however, you want something more structured and visual than a
single query line, Google's Advanced Search should
fit the bill.
