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50+ Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

50+ Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

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 Google 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 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! 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:

Search shortcuts

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:

Category SEO Tools
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Ann Smarty Brand amd Community Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas

Ann Smarty is the blogger and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. Ann’s expertise in blogging and tools serve as ...

50+ Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

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