Yahoo Search Command

Yahoo search commands summary site: Restrict a search to a single site Sample search: Site search for www.searchcommands.com The site: command can be used in two ways; to restrict a search to one site or to list all the pages Yahoo has indexed from one site. For example, site:www.searchcommands.com yahoo searchesSearch Commands* for the word yahoo and site:www.searchcommands.com searches the site for any page and therefore lists them all. The site: command can include or omit the 'www' from the search. hostname: Restrict a search to a single host name Sample search: Search example.searchcommands.com The hostname: command is similar to site: but it is used to restrict the search to one specific hostname/sub-domain. For example, hostname:news.bbc.co.uk. The command is most useful to see how many pages Yahoo has indexed of a site without the 'www' prefix. link: List pages which link to a page Sample search: Backlinks for www.searchcommands.com The term "backlinks" is used to describe those links from external sites which point to the page in question. Google is largely responsible for bringing backlinks into the limelight. Although Yahoo seems to place less importance on the quality/quantity of backlinks they are a non trivial factor in the algorithm. Unlike Google, Yahoo includes the http protocol in the link command, link:http://www.searchcommands.com, and this allows users to count and contrast links to page via specific protocols. For example, the difference between links to http://www.searchcommands.com and https://www.searchcommands.com. In addition and also unlike Google, Yahoo allows users to use the link: command with the site: command and count the number of purely external links. For example: link:http://www.searchcommands.com -site:http://www.searchcommands.com. url: Find one specific URL in the search database Search search: Search for http://www.searchcommands.com Like Yahoo's link: command url: requires the protocol to be included in the URL, ie, http or https. The url: command returns a single URL if it is known to Yahoo along with a category link and cache if available. inurl: Restrict a search so that some keywords must appear in the page address Sample search: Search for pages with commands in their URL Returns pages that have one or more of the keywords in their URL. The inurl: command can sometimes be used to restrict searches to specific sites and directories. For example:inurl:searchcommands.com/yahoo/ search will return pages with 'searchcommands.com/yahoo/' in their URL and search elsewhere on the page. intitle: Restrict a search so that some of the keywords must appear in the title Sample search: Search for pages which contain one or more of search in the title tag and commands in the title or body. Returns pages which have the adjacent keyword in the title tag. This command does not restrict results so that pages must also include any subsequent keywords in the title tag. map Inclue a map of any US location Sample search: Search for map of Boston Yahoo's map command only works for US locations and only in the US version of the search engine, ie not at uk.search.yahoo.com. The maps are provided by Yahoo! Maps and appear below the sponsored results but approve the natural result. The search results which come with the map do include map as the keyword. The map search command does not use the colon. weather Include current weatherinformation for any US location Sample search: Search for weather report for Chicago The weather search command does not use a colon (ie, the syntax weather: chicago would be incorrect according to Yahoo's suggested use, however, the presence of the colon does not actually stop the search command. The weather search command inserts a snippet of a weather forecast for an American location above the organic search results and below the sponsored links. define Include a defination for the keyword Sample search: The definition for search and search results for search The define search command does not use the colon, ie define search rather than define:search and this differs from the Google use of the command. The define search command adds a snippet definition of the search term to the search results, above the natural results and below the sponsored links. The definition links to a fuller dictionary entry at Yahoo! Education. airport Link to weather, directions and maps for an American airport Sample search: Search for information about LAX airport The correct use of the airport search command is after the airport keyword, for example lax airport. This search command places a link above natural search results but below pay per click search results. The airport information link always points to the Yahoo! owned Farechase. For example, the lax airport keyword links to http://farechase.yahoo.com/airports/lax. area code Include a list of cities which match the US area code Sample search: Search for the area code for Boston and Boston search results The area code command is used without the colon and uses area code plus a city keyword. The result pages inserts a Yahoo! Shortcut above search hits for the city keyword plus 'area code' as a keyword. This feature works for American areas only currently. facts Include encyclopedia entry for keyword Sample search: Search for money facts The search command facts is placed after a single keyword. The results pages insert a pargraph summary of an encyclopedia entry for the associated keyword. The encyclopedia shortcut links to a larger entry for the keyword. The shortcut also links through to Yahoo's copy of the Columbia Encyclopedia with a keyword search for related topics. convert Show a variety of unit conversion rates, for example currency or distance Sample search: Convert Dollars to Pounds This search command allows users to convert one unit to another, fahrenheit to celsius for example, or to reveal the conversion factor between the two. Yahoo lists a page of convertion units which the command supports but testing reveals only partial support. gas Include link to gas prices for an American area Sample search: Search for gas prices in Orlando Gas is the Americanism for gasoline/petrol and as such is a command which works with American cities. This search command does not display any gas prices on the search results but provides a link to a gas information provider. hotels Include links to hotels in the area Sample search: Search for new york hotels The hotels search command follows the location keyword rather than introducing them. The hotels search command works with a global range of cities, for example; Edinburgh hotels. This search command adds short cuts to Yahoo Travel and the city specific hotel pages there. showtimes Include and link to movie showtimes in the area Sample search: Search for showtimes in Dallas This search command adds Yahoo! Shortcut links to Yahoo! Movies cinema/theatre pages. The showtimes search command typically comes after the city keyword, eg, Dallas showtimes. This command works for American locations only. news Include and link to news headlines which match the keyword Sample search: Search for London news The news search command can be placed before or after the topic keyword. This search command adds Yahoo! Shortcut links above the organic Yahoo search results to Yahoo! News search resultsand links directly to recent news stories at various news providers. patent Link to detailed information for the matching patent number keyword Sample search: Search for patent 6269361 This search command works only with US patent numbers. With this search command the Yahoo! user must already know the patent number for their search and with it Yahoo will include a Yahoo! Shortcut to the US Patent Office's record of the patent. This search command works only with American patents and not with keywords. quote Show American stockmarket information for a given ticker symbol Sample search: Search for Yahoo financial information A ticker symbol represents a floated company in a stock exchange, rather than listing a company's full and possibly lengthy name, the ticker symbol is a concise summary. In response search command quote and a ticker symbol together as a search option Yahoo will include a graph of recent share price values, a Yahoo! Shortcut to financial information for the company, links to quotes, charts, profiles, recent news and a message board. The use of the search command quote is optional at times as simply by entering a ticker symbol (for example, Yhoo) Yahoo! will return the same information. Omitting the search command quote will also ensure that sponsored results triggered by the keyword quote do not appear. Ticker symbols can also be looked up at Yahoo. synonym Include synonyms for keyword and link to definitions of each Sample search: Include synonyms for command Yahoo responds to the search command synonym by adding a Yahoo! Shortcut to Yahoo! Education's copy of Roget's Thesaurus for the keyword. In addition, in the Yahoo! Shortcut also lists a brief dictionary definition of the keyword and some synonyms. The listed synonyms are linked through to their own Yahoo! Education Roget Thesaurus entries. scores Include and link to score results for team name keyword Sample search: Search for recent golf scores The search command scores follows a sport keyword and produces a Yahoo! Short cut to Yahoo! Sports page. This command works mainly for American searches (so Football scores links to American Football results rather than football/soccer results) but also for international events covered by Yahoo! Sports. time Include local time and timezone information for location keyword Sample search: Include information on the local time in Edinburgh (United Kingdom) The search command includes information on a location keyword's local time. A twelve hour clock with calendar is returned along with a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) adjustment. traffic Link to traffic reports for location keyword Sample search: Include information for traffic in Boston This search command works only with American locations and results in a Yahoo! Shortcut to Yahoo! Local. Traffic information is shown on the Yahoo! map where icons are used to indicate minor, moderate or severe incidents and colours used to suggest traffic speeds. zip code Include a list of zip codes which match the location keyword Sample search: Include zip codes for Orlando This search command includes all known zip codes (American) for a destination keyword a Yahoo! Shortcut to Yahoo! Local. Where the city keyword exists in the more than one state, Yahoo! assumes the search is for the dominant location and provides links to the others. + Insist that the search engine includes a given keyword in the search results Sample search: Search for search, the and commands Yahoo automatically filters some words from normal searches but the use of the + command instructs the search engine to include them. For example, Yahoo would treat a search for search the commands as a search for search commands as the is ignored but the phrase search +the commands would ensure the word the was included. - Insist that the search engine omits pages which match a given keyword in the search results Sample search: Search for pages which match commands but which do not mention search The - command creates is used in front of a keyword which must not be present in the Yahoo search results. For example, -search engine is likely to return pages about trains and cars. feature: Restrict a search to pages which include a given feature Sample search: Search for pages with meta tags and the keywords search commands The feature search command limits Yahoo! search results to those which contain certain features like meta tags, JavaScript or PDF files. The full list of feature elements is here. The feature search command applies to pages which contain the feature or which links to the appropriate media (for vrml, shockwave, etc). region: Restrict a search to pages from a given region Sample search: Restrict search results to pages from Europe and which mention the keywords search and commands Yahoo allows users to restrict their search results to certain regions and this in addition to providing country searches like Yahoo! Search UK & Ireland and Yahoo! Suche Deutschland. The region list is a little quirky and includes a sea as well as continental land masses.