Googlesmithing for beginnners

[max]

  A few tips for those that have yet to discover the true power of google.

If all you do is type terms into the google search field you are really 
missing out. The real power of google is best tapped by advanced search 
and/or using the search operators. I will list a few and a couple of 
simple examples but its fairly straight forward. Generally these 
operators will work when combined with any other operator but how you 
combine them makes a difference to the results so experiment a little. 
Ok without further ado and without warranty for fitness for a particular 
purpose etc....so if you accidentally put your cpu into an endless loop 
that causes it to overheat and melt through your motherboard which in 
turn splits an electron in just the right way to  cause a ripple in 
space/time and a T-Rex eats your computer don't come crying to me, be 
smart and record the conditions under which this occurred so we can 
reproduce the event and sell tickets next time.  Ok now without further 
ado or adon't....and briefly because this stuff is covered in many 
places....

The plus and minus signs can be used to include or exclude a particular 
term.

Say you want to search for Han Solo and Chewbacca. Try this in your 
search field:

Han Solo +Chewbacca

exclude a term:

Han Solo -Chewbacca

restrict your search to a particular site or domain:

linux site:redhat.com

linux site:org

exclude a particular site or domain:

linux -site:redhat.com
linux -site:org

Looking for a linux related PDF ? Try this:

linux filetype:pdf

I should have noted this earlier but all operators so far as I recall 
need a : with no spaces between the : and the term that follows. Here 
are few other operators mostly self-explanatory:

intext:     	-searches the body of web pages for whatever term you specify

allintext:

inurl:      	-includes results with the search terms in the url

allinurl:

intitle:  	-looks for the search terms in the title of web pages

allintitle:

define: 	-defines the term

So can I search the fedora archives with this? sure you can, if you 
craft your query the right way. For example:

ATI site:redhat.com/archives

gets you all the archives or you could just search the fedora archives:

ati site:redhat.com/archives/fedora-list

or combine several operators and restrict it to a particular year

  intitle:ati intext:xorg site:redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2008


There are a few other operators and plenty of sites that cover this 
stuff ad nauseum but I thought some might appreciate the pointers as 
much as I did when I first discovered them( I wanted to jog my memory 
too). Sky is the limit but be aware that occasionally combining 
operators in particular ways or modifying previous searches 
produces...unpredictable results, so when in doubt start from a blank 
search field.

Happy Googleforging,

Max