Google Search Options
Specific file types: *.xls, *.doc, *.pdf *.ps *.ppt *.rtf
Google allows you to search for specific file types, so instead of getting html-files as a result (websites) you get Microsoft excel files for example. The search string you would use would be this:
Filetype:xls (for excel files) or filetype:doc for word files.
But maybe more interesting would be searching for *.db files and *.mdb files. Google by the way doesn’t tell you, you can search for *.db and *mdb files. I wonder what other file types one can search for. Things that come to mind are *.cfg files or *.pwd files, *.dat files, stuff like that. Try and think of something that might get you some interesting results.
Inurl
Another useful search option is the inurl: option which allows one to search for a certain word one would want to be in the url. This gives you the opportunity to search for specific directories/folders, especially in combination with the “index of” option. An example would be inurl:master-tricks which would give you results of website urls that have the word “master-tricks” in the url.
Index of
The index of option is another option that isn’t especially thought of by the creators of google, but comes in very handy. If you use the “index of” string you will find directory listings of specific folders on servers. An example could be: "index of” master-tricks or index.of.master-tricks which would get you many directory listings of master-tricks folders. (don’t forget to use the quotes in this case since you are looking for the entire “index of” string, not just for “index” and “of”)
Site
The site option allows you to come up with results that only belong to a certain domain name extension or to a specific site. For example one could search for .com sites or .box.sk sites or .nl sites, but also for results from just one site. An example of a search string would be: Site:org
Intitle
Intitle is another nice option. It allows you to search for html files that have a certain word or words in the title. The format would be intitle:wordhere.
Link
The Link option allows you to check which sites link to a specific site. For example link:http://master-tricks.blogspot.com
Combining search options
The above mentioned search options might or might not be known to you, but even though they can amount to some interesting results, it’s a fact that when you start combining them, that’s when google’s magic starts to show. For example, one could try this search string: inurl:master-tricks intitle:master-tricks or this one: site:org filetype:xls "password" .
