A shortcut in general is defined as “a route shorter than the usual one.” I find this definition the best one because it can be applied to any meaning of the word including a “search shortcut” (not a keyboard shortcut) which basically means any pre-defined combination of characters / words that allows to quickly get an answer to your initial question.
This post is intended as a comprehensive guide to Google and Yahoo search shortcuts providing a cheat sheet of over 50 shortcuts and comparing the two search engines.
Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Compared:
The extended version of the table is also available as a separate HTML file here and as a .doc file here.
| What a shortcut does / where it is used | Yahoo! | ||
| Definitions and encyclopedic references | define:seo | define seo | |
| Define seo | moon facts | ||
| Synonyms and related words | (seems to work only when it makes sense and is now used by default) Compare: ~clever and ~apple and apple | synonym clever | |
| Local / Area specific | Weather report | weather San Francisco | weather San Francisco |
| World time | time London | time London | |
| Area code and zip code clarification | 415 | 415 | |
| Local map | 875 n Michigan ave Chicago il | 875 n Michigan ave Chicago il | |
| Traffic report | – | los angeles traffic | |
| Hotel reviews and information | hilton hotel san francisco / hotel los angeles | hilton san francisco / hotel los angeles | |
| News, scores and schedules for sports teams | san francisco 49ers / yankees scores | san francisco 49ers / yankees scores | |
| Earthquake activity | earthquake | earthquake | |
| Store, restaurant, or other local business | Chinese food 02138 | Chinese food 02138 | |
| Local events | – | events chicago | |
| Reviews and show times for movies | movies 02138 / showtimes 90028 | movies 02138 / showtimes 90028 | |
| U.S. flights | american airlines 18 / Houston airport / Houston IAH | american airlines 18 / N924an | |
| Finance / stock quotes | GOOG | ford motor quote / GOOG | |
| Recent news headlines | news obama | news obama | |
| Artist and song lyrics | – | u2 lyrics / u2 beautiful day lyrics | |
| Shopping | Product reviews and pricing | mp3 player (pricing) | mp3 player (reviews and category) |
| Coupon codes | – | Gap coupons | |
| Maths | Additions | 45 + 39 | 45 + 39 |
| subtraction | 45 – 39 | 45 – 39 | |
| multiplication | 45 * 39 | 45 * 39 | |
| division | 45 / 39 | 45 / 39 | |
| percentage | 45% of 39 | 45% of 39 | |
| raise to a power | 2^5 | 2^5 | |
| convert | 2 miles to inches and convert 2 miles to inches | convert 2 miles to inches | |
| currency converter | 150 GBP in USD / convert 100 dollars to yen | 150 GBP in USD / convert 100 dollars to yen | |
| square root | square root 4 and sqrt 4 | – | |
| Package tracker | 1zw10f970200027039 | 1zw10f970200027039 | |
| Recipes | – | low fat recipes | |
| Search within site | site:amazon.com bestseller / site:.edu | site:amazon.com bestseller / site:.edu | |
| Search for backlinks | link:http://www.apple.com/itunes apple | link:http://www.apple.com/itunes apple / linkdomain:apple.com apple | |
| Search term location | Term(s) in URL | allinurl:student loans | inurl:student inurl:loans |
| Term(s) in title | allintitle:student loans | intitle:student intitle:loans | |
| Term(s) in body text | intext:sun | – | |
| Term(s) in backlink anchor text | allinanchor:student loans | – | |
| Specific file type | filetype:pdf] | originurlextension:pdf | |
| Related sites | related:www.amazon.com | – | |
| SE saved copy | cache:http://www.apple.com/itunes/ | – | |
| URL-related info | info:http://www.apple.com/itunes/ | url:http://www.amazon.com | |
| Location of the document | – | region:europe | |
Google Search Shortcuts
Google is well known for its ability to give a searcher answers without him to even have to leave it SERPs.
Google has several “official” guides to its shortcuts and advanced search, and you can read them here, here and here.
Yahoo Search Shortcuts
Yahoo! newly-introduced “new” search brought a number of very useful shortcuts, described here in detail and also listed in the table above.
“Old” shortcuts are also in use, here are all of them:
- !amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?mode=blended&keyword=%s
- !audio http://audio.search.yahoo.com/search/audio?p=%s
- !ebay http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=%s
- !flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/%s/
- !image http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=%s
- !mw http://myweb.yahoo.com/myresults/ourresults?p=%s
- !news http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=%s
- !php http://www.php.net/%s
- !shop http://search.shopping.yahoo.com/search?cop=mss&p=%s
- !video http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=%s
- !wiki http://en.wikipedia.org?search=%s
- !mail http://compose.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?login=1&To=%s
Create Your Own Shortcuts:
Create Shortcuts in FireFox
“Smart keywords” is the FireFox feature that lets you create shortcuts for any search engine / site you need. I have described how to create and operate FireFox smart keywords in detail previously:
Create Yahoo! Search Shortcuts:
Yahoo! open shortcuts allow to create shortcuts of your own:
- Create a shortcut for any search you want to perform;
- Type an ! (exclamation point) followed by the name of the shortcut in the Yahoo! Search box (note: doesn’t work from FireFox search plugins for me, only from Yahoo home page);
- Examples:
- !wsf to search “weather san francisco” on Yahoo!
- !ebay laptops to search for “laptops” on Ebay
Further reading:
- How to Use Boolean Search Operators : SEO Application;
- Wildcard Search : When and How To Use It;
- How To Diagnose Your Site with Google Advanced Search;
- Advanced Link: Operator to Explore Your Competitor’s Backlinks;
- More? (Share a useful post on search shortcuts and / or advanced operators and I will add it to the list).
