Google operators - search operators, search syntax and search commands for Google

Google Operators - Google, constantly seeking to update and improve its search service, have long provided search syntax operators to provide greater direct access to commonly requested search queries. Google Advanced Operators cover specialized information queries, alternative query types, and specific Google search query syntax for certain Google sets such as Google Groups, Google News, and Froogle.

Here is a Top 5 of the more useful Google Operators:

Google Search Operators - Syntax 1 - "site:"

This search operator instructs Google to restrict your search results to the site or domain you query.
The number of pages returned with this operator is strictly an estimate, and is only to three significant figures. You can expect the number of pages returned to vary for different data centres. Treat the search pages site command estimate with a pinch of salt, but nevertheless, this is a great search operator.

Google Search Operators - Syntax 2 - "link:"

This search operator queries Google to report the number of links. Google certainly does not report all the links that it is aware of and, in fact, of the big three, seems to offer the most limited of reported links; this is most likely due to more sophisticated handling of 'spammy' links.

Google Search Operators - Syntax 3 - "define:"

This Google search syntax operator is useful for finding definitions of words, meanings of phrases, and listing all of the common variations for acronyms - an especially handy tool!.

Google Search Operators - Syntax 4 - "cache:"

The query cache: Google search syntax operator displays the cached version of a web page for a given URL. Google's cache, a feature introduced in 1997, actually takes a snapshot of each page as it crawls the web providing a useful back-up in case the original page is unavailable. If you click on the "Cached" link, you will see the web page as it looked when it was indexed. The cached content is the content Google uses to judge whether this page is a relevant match for a query. This search operator has a variety of uses but the main reason for calling on this Google syntax is for reading a page which is currently off-line on the actual server and for this reason makes it into syntax position 4.

Google Search Operators - Syntax 5 - "weather"

This search operator commands Google to report the weather. Always useful.

"To see weather conditions and a four-day forecast for a particular U.S. location, type "weather," followed by the location. Usually a city name will be enough, but you may also want to include a state or zipcode. For example, to see Palo Alto weather, you could search for "weather palo alto, ca" or "weather palo alto 94301."

Using Google search commands and search syntax can help you find information more easily, and with greater accuracy - definitely a good thing in this reporter's opinion. There are, of course, many other search commands, and the best of the bunch are always useful to know: