Google Advanced Search

Here are search prefixes to perform an Advanced Search using Google:

• define:phrase
  Show a list of definitions for phrase
• cache:www.domain.com
  Google’s cache of www.domain.com
• link:www.domain.com
  List of websites that link to www.domain.com
• related:www.domain.com
  List webpages similar to www.domain.com
• info:www.domain.com
  Show information that Google has about www.domain.com
• site:www.domain.com
  List all webpages hosted at www.domain.com
• allintitle:query
  Restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title.
• intitle:query
  Restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title.
• allinurl:query
  Restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the URL.
• inurl:query
  Restrict the results to documents containing that word in the URL.
• date:months-range
  Search only within a range of recent months
• safesearch:query
  Search with excluding adult contents
  
• stocks:ticker-symbol
  Show stock information for specified symbol.
• lang:lang-code query
  Restrict the results to documents in specified language.

For more information, visit:

• Complete list of advanced operators
• Print-and-save Google Cheat Sheet

Feed Discovery Online Tool

Feed Discovery service provided by WebTNG.com

Google Toolbar v5 for MSIE

The Google Toolbar is a free download that adds a Google search box to your web browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer). The Toolbar also includes innovative features that make browsing more efficient, such as a web form filler, spellchecker, word translator, and pop-up blocker (for IE).

With the Google Toolbar, you can make your Toolbar as unique as you are. You can add buttons and bookmarks, get instant search suggestions, and share web pages with friends via email, blog, or SMS.

Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer launched version 5 has been launched as public beta. This version introduces a number of exciting features, such as making your Toolbar settings available from any computer that you log into with your Google Account, improved suggestions for broken links, as well as important changes that make Toolbar more accessible for assistive technology users.

Google Toolbar makes browsing the Internet simpler and more efficient with integrated Google search and other web tools. This release is about improving the way the millions of Toolbar users can engage with content on the web and personalize the browser experience.

This release adds support for Windows Accessibility APIs (used by screen readers, etc.) and enables keyboard navigation and access. From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut Alt+G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. If you're using a screen reader, you'll hear "Google Toolbar Search". Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and left arrow keys move focus between buttons.

Version 5 comes as a part of ongoing efforts to enhance accessibility in client-side and web applications, which is a matter I hardly need to mention is very important. It's as an important step forward, as the product reaches a very large number of users and enables everyone to gain quick access to a multitude of useful features, through a unified UI. Adding keyboard navigation and other features that enhance the ease of access to these features benefit everyone.

Google Toolbar now lets you:

• Add Google Gadgets
• Fill in forms with a single click
• Access your Toolbar from any computer
• Clip and collect content as you browse
• Get suggestions for broken links

You can download the new Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/T5
or read Google Toolbar review in PDF format.

GoogleTalk Auto Translation

Google Talk, Google's homemade Jabber-based chat client, is now host to 24 (and counting) new translation bots (a (ro)bot is a piece of software that acts as a chat contact and provides some functionality) that will take whatever text you typed and translate it to the appropriate language. Each of the bots was built with an open protocol called XMPP that lets anyone build their own bots and share them on the Google Talk network, as long as you've got some place to host them.

The new bots become particularly useful if you invite one into a group chat with one or more users who speak a different language. The bot will automatically translate the conversation so each user can understand one another, which you can see on the screenshot to the right. It's like having an interpreter sit beside you and translate whatever you say (as long as it can understand you. Mistyped words, slanks, and names will be spelled as is without interpretation. Although machine translation is still far from perfect, these bots can be helpful in bridging language barriers).

If you want to try it, just add en2zh@bot.talk.google.com as a friend in Google Talk and send it a message to translate from English to Chinese. You can use our embedded chatbox gadget from within this blog.

For more languages, just add any of the 23 other translation bots. They're named using two-letter language abbreviations as "[from language]2[to language]@bot.talk.google.com", and the supported language pairs are: ar2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fr2de, fr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, zh2en. So, for French to German translation, talk to fr2de@bot.talk.google.com.

Listen to Google, Sell More!

Don't look for the perfect scenario, but you may want to learn a couple things (or get a helpful reminder) from this new Google Webmaster Central Blog post about giving meta descriptions a makeover to attract more traffic.

You've heard about how meta descriptions should be diverse. If they're properly reflecting the page content, that shouldn't be tough in most cases. Google goes into some detail about how to handle this with dynamic websites. The post comments present some problems as well.

Although the snippets (the preview text that appears with the search results) can come from the visible text or the meta description, it can't hurt (and may help) to write meta descriptions that catch a searcher's attention. Go for details, not redundancy. Focus on value, not just a string of keywords.

Google doesn't go into detail about how it decides whether to include the meta description or a portion of text from the main content. But a well-written meta description may increase the odds of the meta description being used. Google includes good and bad examples of meta descriptions.

I was encouraged that Google went out of its way to say that even accurate meta descriptions "won't affect your ranking within search results." Don't optimize a website for rankings by spending your time changing up meta descriptions, but write them the best way possible the first time you introduce content.

Chat with other webmasters!

Google Translation Buttons

Google offers a list of bookmarklets that you can drag to your browser's links bar and that allows you to translate the current page from a language to another language.

"While surfing the web, if you find a piece of text you'd like to translate, select the text with your mouse and click the browser button. If you want to translate a whole web page, simply click the button."

Here is the code...

<script type="text/javascript">
function googleTranslate(lpair) {
var t=(
(window.getSelection&&window.getSelection()) ||
(document.getSelection && document.getSelection()) ||
(document.selection && document.selection.createRange &&
 document.selection.createRange().text)
);
var e=( document.charset || document.characterSet );
if(t!=''){
 location.href=
   'http://translate.google.com/translate_t?'+
   'text='+t+'&hl=en&langpair='+lpair+'&tbb=1&ie='+e;
}else{
 location.href=
 'http://translate.google.com/translate?'+
 'u='+escape(location.href)+
 '&hl=en&langpair='+lpair+'&tbb=1&ie='+e;
};
} //end_of_googleTranslate()
<script>

Then to use it on your page, simply add a simple link like this:
<a href="javascript:googleTranslate('en|fr');">voir cette page en France </a>

Demo: Click here to view this page in France