Narrowing search results

[boron]

Can we share here all methods for narrowing search results which we found useful so far?

We can maybe skip well known Google operators like +, OR, and "" . Well, I've just found out again that you can search through particular domains in Google with "site: .org searchterm" to get only .org sites in results.

I've already mentioned searching through country search engines here (http://publisherforums.com/showthread.php?t=573&highlight=country+specific).

Any other tips for narrowing search?

[Submerge]

This site should help: http://www.googleguide.com/tag/narrowing_search

Other than that, if you're using other search techniques the wildcard(*) is a great narrower to use.

[boron]

It's interesting how Google can't collect all its searching rules on one place, so I'm constantly updating this post (http://publisherforums.com/showthread.php?t=483&highlight=operators).

[Arthur07]

Narrowing search results...make your query more specific.

Instead of "Tropical Fish" search for "Orange Spotted Tropical Fish"

[Arthur07]

Tropical Fish 3,610,000 results
Orange Spotted Tropical Fish 1,040,000 results.

Just for reference :D.

[Submerge]

Wouldn't it be better if you tired "Orange Spotted" AND "Tropical Fish". That way people won't have to word it so exact. But you still get a rather large result query.

[Arthur07]

Wouldn't it be better if you tired "Orange Spotted" AND "Tropical Fish". That way people won't have to word it so exact. But you still get a rather large result query.

Sounds like a plan :).

[boron]

One narrowing method is to delimit the source of data on the beginning. Narrowing should put the most comprehensive sites on the top.

I start narrowing in Yahoo directory. It's far from the perfect, you can find some totaly personal sites among first ten, but when you look for a "blog directory", you have to check only 168 links. My local Google spit out 209,000,000 results.

[Mystic]

Well the basic operators i.e. " " and or, does the job for me.
Also I use define: a lot in google.

[Submerge]

Didn't even know define was a function on google. That should help out a lot, always used dictionary.com

[boron]

Define itself is pretty limited, but there are other small tricks handy: you can calculate simple math equations from the search field, you can convert Farenheit degrees in Celsium, calories in kilojoules, dollars in euros and so on.

[Arthur07]

Like this: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=5+euros+to+gbp&meta=

It's pretty convenient. :)