Google Search URL parameters cheat sheet
I've been playing around with the URL parameters Google has to offer a lot lately, mostly after the de-personalized search stuff. I've now built a list of these parameters and created a PDF cheat sheet file with all of them in there. Included in this PDF are links to the documentation for the values some of these parameters can hold.
This is a rough version, so I'd love to hear your comments on how to improve this cheat sheet!
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What about "meta", what does that parameter do? I can see it's included in (for example) the Google Image Search link, but why?
Cool
Now we just need to figure out all the accepted values that go with these. A couple of examples might be useful also.
Thanks Joost, this is going to be really handy.
Richard: yeah perhaps I'll make a page out of it as well with some examples...
How about:
start=
channel=
ibd=
client=
I believe there's a couple more but this should keep you busy for a bit ;-)
Hi Joost,
Don't you think it is about time Google explained all URL variables in one cheatsheet themselves? Don't they have such a page or just haven't I found it yet?
Some of these already get processed by my Google referrer statistics tool described at http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51682
One that I couldn't understand was "sa" - do you have any idea?
@ulco: I'll add them in the next version.
@Peter: yeah they should...
@JohnMu: I'll find out! :)
Cool. Thanks a lot.
HTML Version of it would be cool as well for your site I guess.
You may have missed this on Google Images: imgtype=face
to get only faces. Thanks to Luis von Ahn :)
@Bashar: yeah i'll be creating an HTML version as well :)
I created one on google docs here; it would look nicer as a writely document, but the tables on writely are pretty flaky.
I have tried an old google command, to search all linkbacks of the domain excluding the onpage links. Looks like google changed the query as I found many references with the old parameters which now does not seem to work anymore.
Let's say I want to find all backlinks for digg.com BUT without the onpage links what should I add to http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Adigg.com ?
from your pdf:
"specify filetype (pdf | ps | dwf | kml | kmz | xls | ppt | doc | rtf | swf)"
I dont know how many other types work, but maybe you want to add these to your list:
AI, RTF, TXT, ASP, PHP, CGI, HTM, HTML, LOG, INI, JS, BAT
and now google for the complete list ;)
http://www.google.com/search?q=AI+RTF+TXT+ASP+PHP+CGI+HTM+HTML+LOG+INI+JS+PDF+DWF+KML+KMZ+SWF+BAT+XLS+PPT+RTF+google+filetype+OR+%22file+type%22&num=100&btnG=Search
Cheers
Joost,
Thanks for sharing, this is very handy, I was looking for ways to mine more information out of my search engine referral logs.
Besides scrapping and mining logs, what other practical use can you think of?
Hamlet, it can be used to build a bot to emulate random people clicking your pages in the serps, which is rumored among black-hats to improve your ranking and correlation, especially if it's 'mysite.com keyword-i-want-to-associate-my-site-with'
I think Google has all in its help section..
Neither imgtype=face or imgtype=news appear to be documented in Google's help.
Hello,
you can also use the date restriction for past day
(d) month (m) and year (y) which comes in handy when searching for seasonal keywords.
Not sure if you all already know about this one; I use allinanchor search for back links with relevant keywords
allinurl:keyword phrase
allintitle:keyword phrase
allintext:keyword phrase
Gret cheat sheet!
Just wanted to point to another pretty sophisticated use of syntax from the old Google Answers site:
https://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=565252
Tricky Google Search Syntax Needed
Should be of interest to folks here.
David
Great sheet! Good work! Love the list!
JohnMu: I've been thinking about the "sa" part, and it could be something about the source of action. N could be a Normal Navigation, X could be cross navigation (for "Search related to: ") etc.
Some parameters missing:
oi
resnum
ct
cd
revid
@Joost de Valk:
u suck