Google search features - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This is a detailed article, for an overview, see: Google Search
Google search
Google or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....

.

The Google search features include more than 40 options or keywords to modify the type of search. Google Web Search is a web search engine

Web search engine

A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results often referred to as SERPS, or "search engine results pages". The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other...

owned by Google, Inc.

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, and is the most-used search engine on the Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services.
(Google Search was created by Larry Page

Larry Page

Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...

and Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin

Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....

in 1997.)

Beyond the original word-search capability, Google Search provides more than 22 special features, such as: similar synonym words; weather forecasts; time zones; stock quotes; maps; earthquake data; movie showtimes; airports; home listings; sports scores, etc. (see below: Special features). There are special features for numbers: prices; money/unit conversions ("10.5 cm in inches"); temperatures ("50 Fahrenheit in Celsius"); general calculations ( 3*4+sqrt(6)-pi/2 ); package tracking; patents; area codes; plus rudimentary language translation of displayed pages.

A Google search-results page is ordered by a priority rank called "PageRank

PageRank

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page and used by the Google Internet search engine, that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set...

" which is kept secret to avoid spammers from forcing their pages to the top. Google Search provides more than 15 options for customizing a search (see below: Search options), such as: exclusion ("-xx"), inclusion ("+xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy"), and wildcard matching ("*").
The focus of this page is provide details about each feature, but not teach usage. For how-to guides, see the webpages under References, below.

General features

The Google search engine has many features, intended as intuitively obvious to users, to make it more functional. Google is one of the top ten most-visited websites today. Some of its features include a definition link for most searches, including dictionary words, a list of how many results matched the search, links to other searches (e.g. if words were misspelled, it gives a link to the search results for the correct spellings), and many more.

Search syntax

Google's search engine normally accepts queries as a simple text, and breaks up the user's text into a sequence of search terms, which will usually be words that are to occur in the results, but may also be phrases, delimited by quotations marks ("), qualified terms, with a prefix such as "+", "-", or one of several advanced operators, such as "site:". The webpages of "Google Search Basics" describe each of these additional queries and options (see below: Search options).

Google's Advanced Search web form gives several additional fields which may be used to qualify searches by such criteria as date of first retrieval. All advanced queries transform to regular queries, usually with additional qualified terms.

Query expansion

Google applies query expansion

Query expansion

Query expansion is the process of reformulating a seed query to improve retrieval performance in information retrieval operations.In the context of web search engines, query expansion involves evaluating a user's input and expanding the search query to match additional documents...

to the submitted search query, transforming it into the query that will actually be used to retrieve results. As with page ranking, the exact details of the algorithm Google uses are deliberately obscure, but certainly the following transformations are among those that occur:

Term reordering: in information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...

this is a standard technique to reduce the work involved in retrieving results. This transformation is invisible to the user, since the results ordering uses the original query order to determine relevance.
Stemming
Stemming
In linguistic morphology and information retrieval, stemming is the process for reducing inflected words to their stem, base or root form—generally a written word form. The stem need not be identical to the morphological root of the word; it is usually sufficient that related words map to the same...

is used to increase search quality by keeping small syntactic variants of search terms.http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=35889#stemming
There is a limited facility to fix possible misspellings in queries.

"I'm Feeling Lucky"

Google's homepage includes a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". When a user clicks on the button the user will be taken directly to the first search result, bypassing the search engine results page

Search engine results page

A search engine results page , is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. The results normally include a list of web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the Keywords have matched content within the page...

. The thought is that, if a user is "feeling lucky", the search engine will return the perfect match the first time without having to page through the search results.

According to a study by Tom Chavez of "Rapt", this feature costs Google $110 million a year as 1% of all searches use this feature and bypass all advertising.

Rich Snippets

On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard

HCard

hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML...

, hReview

HReview

hReview is a microformat for publishing reviews of books, music, films, restaurants, businesses, holidays, etc. using HTML on web pages, using HTML classes and rel attributes.....

and hProduct

HProduct

hProduct is a microformat for publishing details of products, on web pages, using HTML classes and rel attributes..On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hProduct, hCard and hReview microformats, and using them to populate search result pages....

microformat

Microformat

A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML, such as RSS...

s, and using them to populate search result pages with what they called "Rich Snippets".

Special features

Besides the main search-engine feature of searching for text, Google Search has more than 22 "special features" (activated by entering any of dozens of trigger words) when searching:

synonym search - A search can match words similar to those specified, by placing the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a search term, such as: ~fast food.

weather - The weather humidity, temperature and forecast, for many cities, can be viewed by typing "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country (such as: weather Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...

; weather Paris; weather Bremen, Germany). If the city name looks like a common word, then the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

, ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

, or nation must also be specified.

stock quotes - The market data for a specific company or fund can be viewed, by typing the ticker symbol
Ticker symbol
A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a short abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker...

(or include "stock"), such as: CSCO
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...

; MSFT
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

; IBM stock; F stock (lists Ford Motor Co.
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

); or AIVSX (fund). Results show inter-day changes, or 5-year graph, etc.

time zone - The current time in many cities (worldwide), can be viewed by typing "time" and the name of the city (such as: time Cairo; time Pratt, KS).

sports scores - The scores and schedules, for sports teams, can be displayed by typing the team name or league name into the search box.

calculator - Calculation
Calculation
A calculation is a deliberate process for transforming one or more inputs into one or more results, with variable change.The term is used in a variety of senses, from the very definite arithmetical calculation of using an algorithm to the vague heuristics of calculating a strategy in a competition...

results can be determined, as calculated live, by entering a formula in numbers or words, such as: 6*77 +pi +sqrt(e^3)/888 plus 0.45. The user is given the option to search for the formula, after calculation.

unit conversion - Measurements can be converted, by entering each phrase, such as: 10.5 cm in inches; or 90 km in miles.

currency conversion - A money or currency converter can be selected, by typing the names or currency codes (listed by ISO 4217
ISO 4217
ISO 4217 is a standard published by the International Standards Organization, which delineates currency designators, country codes , and references to minor units in three tables:* Table A.1 – Current currency & funds code list...

): 6789 Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

in USD; 150 GBP in USD; 5000 Yen in USD; 5000 Yuan
Chinese yuan
The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...

in lira
Lira
Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...

(the U.S. dollar can be USD or "US$" or "$", while Canadian is CAD, etc.).

dictionary lookup - A definition for a word or phrase can be found, by entering "define" plus the word(s) to lookup (such as: Define philosophy)

maps - Some related maps can be displayed, by typing in the name or U.S. ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

of a location and the word "map" (such as: New York map; Kansas map; or Paris map).

movie showtimes - Reviews or film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

showtimes can be listed for any movies playing nearby, by typing "movies" or the name of any current film into the search box. If a specific location was saved on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters for that movie. These listings however are sometimes totally incorrect and there is no way to ask google to correct them; for example, on 07/25/2009, for the El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres...

, google showtimes lists Up
Up (2009 film)
Up is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film...

but according to the El Capitan website, the only movie playing that day is G-Force
G-Force (film)
G-Force is a 2009 spy-fi comedy film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Walt Disney Pictures in Disney Digital 3-D. Written by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, the film is the directorial debut of Hoyt Yeatman, whose earlier work includes contributions in the area of visual effects...

.

public data - Trends for population (or unemployment rates) can be found for U.S. states & counties, by typing "population" or "unemployment rate" followed by a state or county name.

real estate and housing - Home listings in a given area can be displayed, using the trigger words "housing", "home", or "real estate" followed by the name of a city or U.S. zip code.

travel data/airports - The flight status for arriving or departing U.S. flights can be displayed, by typing in the name of the airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

and the flight number into the search box (such as: American airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

18). Delays at a specific airport can also be viewed (by typing the name of the city or three-letter airport code plus word "airport").

package tracking - Package mail can be tracked by typing the tracking number of a UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

, Fedex
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...

or USPS
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

package directly into the search box. Results will include quick links to track the status of each shipment.

patent numbers - U.S. patents can be searched by entering the word "patent" followed by the patent number into the search box (such as: Patent 5123123).

area code - The geographical location (for any U.S. telephone area code) can be displayed by typing a 3-digit area code (such as: 650).

U.S. Government search - Searching of U.S. government websites can be performed from webpage: www.google.com/ig/usgov.

There might be other special features, beyond those listed here (see source references:).

Search options

The webpages maintained by the Google Help Center have text describing more than 15 various search options.
The Google operators:

OR - Search for either one, such as "price high OR low" searches for "price" with "high" or "low".
"-" - Search while excluding a word, such as "apple -tree" searches where word "tree" is not used.
"+" - (Removed on 10/19/11) Force inclusion of a word, such as "Name +of +the Game" to require the words "of" & "the" to appear on a matching page.
"*" - Wildcard operator to match any words between other specific words.

Some of the query options are as follows:

define: - The query prefix "define:" will provide a definition of the words listed after it.
stocks: - After "stocks:" the query terms are treated as stock ticker symbols for lookup.
site: - Restrict the results to those websites in the given domain, such as, site:www.acmeacme.com. The option "site:com" will search all domain URLs named with ".com" (no space after "site:").
allintitle: - Only the page titles are searched (not the remaining text on each webpage).
intitle: - Prefix to search in a webpage title, such as "intitle:google search" will list pages with word "google" in title, and word "search" anywhere (no space after "intitle:").
allinurl: - Only the page URL address lines are searched (not the text inside each webpage).
inurl: - Prefix for each word to be found in the URL; others words are matched anywhere, such as "inurl:acme search" matches "acme" in a URL, but matches "search" anywhere (no space after "inurl:").

The page-display options (or query types) are:

cache: - Highlights the search-words within the cached document, such as "cache:www.google.com xxx" shows cached content with word "xxx" highlighted.
link: - The prefix "link:" will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage, such as "link:www.google.com" lists webpages linking to the Google homepage.
related: - The prefix "related:" will list webpages that are "similar" to a specified web page.
info: - The prefix "info:" will display some background information about one specified webpage, such as, info:www.google.com. Typically, the info is the first text (160 bytes, about 23 words) contained in the page, displayed in the style of a results entry (for just the 1 page as matching the search).

Note that Google searches the HTML coding inside a webpage, not the screen appearance: the words displayed on a screen might not be listed in the same order in the HTML coding.

Error messages

Some searches will give a 403 Forbidden error with the text:

"We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google."

sometimes followed by a CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person. The process usually involves one computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade...

prompt.

The screen was first reported in 2005, and was a response to the heavy use of Google by search engine optimization

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...

companies to check on ranks of sites they were optimizing. The message may also be triggered by high volumes of different searches from a single IP address. Google apparently uses the Google cookie as part of its determination of refusing service. The error usually occurs after the 11th page in your google search. The block is generally removed after a day.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

General features

Search syntax

Query expansion

"I'm Feeling Lucky"

Rich Snippets

Special features

Search options

Error messages

Further reading

External links