Search Engines
What is a search engine?
Google
Google is great and is probably one of the best resources available to find information online. We can use Google advanced operators to help zero in on information. Some of the most common ones we are are below.
"search term"
Make Google for an exact-match of your search, exactly as you typed it. Because you are smarter than google.
Example: "No Regerts Tattoos"
AND
Make Google search for THIS and THAT. Google defaults to AND in your searches. If you need something to cheer up your day, search the example. You can replace AND with +.
Example: cute AND panda
OR
Make Google search for THIS or That. You can replace OR with |. That is the pipe key. Its located right above your enter key. Yeah, I know you are welcome.
Example: dogs OR cats
()
Remember these from math class? They work the same way. These allow you group multiple search operators or terms together. You can use these for the distributive property as well when you search.
Example: Chocolate AND (candy OR Cake)
inurl:
Make Google search for things in the url of web pages.
Example: inurl:puppies
site:
Make Google show you the results related to a certain domain. You can combine this with a keyword search.
Example: site:facebook.com "Justin Bieber"
filetype:
Makes Google show you results based on the file you are searching for. Combine this with the site operator, throw in some keywords, and BAM! You are a now a Google Pro.
Example: filetype:ppt osint
This is not a complete list of Google advanced operators. I do not get paid enough to list them all here. However, you could use what you just learned about Google, to learn even more about Google.
Bing
Listen folks. Stop hating on Bing. We actually use Bing for a lot, because it is a different set of data that we can search. Believe it or not, Google does not know everything. It never hurts to use Bing too, especially when you cannot find it on Google. The button on the right will take you Bing's page on their advanced operators.
Click here for Bing's page on all of their advance operators
Yandex
You have heard of Bing and Google, but what is Yandex? Yandex is Russian Google. It is a great place to search if you are care about people or businesses in that area of the world.
Click here for some more information on Yandex advance operators. Just remember it is based in Russia.
Baidu
This is Chinese Google, so have fun navigating this if you don't know Mandarin. If you care about this part of the world it might be useful to search with this engine. Once again, remember this is based out of China.
Click here for Baidu in English.
Honorable Mentions
Below are some sites that are useful to aid in your research. At some point there will be summaries for what these do, so stay tuned.