Search Engine Commands
Introduction
All the major search engines has various commands that can be used to retrieve different information about a particular site. This information can be the number of pages included in an index from a particular site, the pages that link to a website and related websites. We'll try and cover the most important ones here.
Google Search Engine Commands
Link Command - The link command will retrieve all the pages that link to a specific url. Google's link command is not accurate, it only shows a fraction of the links actually pointing to a site.
Example: link:http://www.site.com
Site Command - The site command will retrieve all the pages Google has in the index for a specific site.
Example: site:http://www.site.com
Inurl Command - The inurl command will retrieve all the pages Google has in the index that contain a specific word in the url.
Example: inurl:word
Related Command - The related command will retrieve all the pages Google has in the index that are related or similar to a given url.
Example: related:http://www.site.com
Google Search has many more commands that can be used such as location and language to narrow down searches but the ones above are probably the most valuable and useful ones. You can find more information on these at http://www.google.com
Yahoo! Explorer Search Engine Commands
Link Command - The link command will retrieve all the pages that Yahoo! Explorer has in the index that link to a specific url.
Example: link:http://www.site.com
Site Command - The site command will retrieve all the pages Yahoo! Explorer has in the index for a specific site.
Example: site:http://www.site.com
Inurl Command - The inurl command will retrieve all the pages Yahoo! Explorer has in the index that contain a specific word in the url.
Example: inurl:word
Related Command - The related command will retrieve all the pages Yahoo! Explorer has in the index that are related or similar to a given url.
Example: related:http://www.site.com
Yahoo! Explorer Search has many more commands that can be used such as location and language preference to narrow down searches but the ones above are probably the most valuable and useful ones. You can find more information on these at http://search.yahoo.com
Bing Search Engine Commands
Link Command - The link command will retrieve all the pages that Bing has in the index that link to a specific url.
Example: link:http://www.site.com
Please note that this function seems to be currently disabled on Bing Search and will not return any results.
Site Command - The site command will retrieve all the pages Bing has in the index for a specific site.
Example: site:http://www.site.com
Inurl Command - The inurl command will retrieve all the pages Bing has in the index that contain a specific word in the url.
Example: inurl:word
Bing Search has many more commands that can be used such as location, feeds and preferences to narrow down searches but the ones above are probably the most valuable and useful ones. You can find more information on these at http://www.bing.com
Ask.com Search Engine Commands
Link Command - The best way to find links in Ask.com is to do a search for www.domain.com. The results will show all sites with www.domain.com in them. Although this is not completely accurate, it is a good indication of the link count Ask.com has for www.domain.com
Site Command - The best way to do this is to do a search for the domain as www.domain.com. In the results page, under the results for the domain in question, there should be a link that says "More results from www.domain.com". Click this and it will list all the pages from that domain.
Inurl Command - The inurl command will retrieve all the pages Ask.com has in the index that contain a specific word in the url.
Example: inurl:word
Ask.com has many more commands that can be used such as location, feeds and preferences to narrow down searches but the ones above are probably the most valuable and useful ones. You can find more information on these at http://www.ask.com