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Google search syntax

Proximity searching in Google Alerts

by Adam Green on May 3, 2009

in Google Alerts, Google search syntax

proximity

Great question, Paul. True proximity searching would imply some type of distance value that meant, “Show me these words separated by no more than N words.” Google Alerts doesn’t have this syntax, but you can get close to it with the asterisk wild card. Normally I use the asterisk to find phrases that may have several variations, such as a trademark or pop culture catchphrase. For example, the phrase “Make love, not war” has endless variations, which you can find with make * not war. My favorite is Make cupcakes, not war.

The Google docs say that the asterisk only matches a single word, but that isn’t true. I have found it to match from 1 to 3 words. So you can use this as a proximity search where N is somewhere between 1 and 3.

Here is a way I might use it for my work with Google Alerts. I want to find all mentions of this, but people often describe them as Google News Alerts, Google Web Alerts, or Google Blog Alerts. They also use either alerts or alert. This search will match all of these patterns:
“google * alerts” OR “google * alert”

Do you have a Google Alerts question you need answered? Tweet me @mrgooglealerts, or leave a comment here.

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Google Alerts bug: Multiple URLs can’t be searched with site:

by Adam Green on March 12, 2009

in Announcements, Bugs, Google Alerts, Google search syntax

The site: operator is a great part of Google Alerts. It lets you restrict your search term to a single URL:
“steve jobs” health site:nytimes.com

Unfortunately, you can only use site: once per alert. The OR operator usually allows you to combine multiple terms in a single query, but if you use it with site:, only the first URL is searched. Google doesn’t warn you about this. This search will still only create alerts for nytimes.com:
“steve jobs” health (site:nytimes.com OR site:wsj.com)

If you want to use site: with multiple URLs, you have to create separate alerts for each one:
“steve jobs”  health site:nytimes.com
“steve jobs” health site:wsj.com

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Google Alerts Bug: Upper or lower case can break your alerts

March 10, 2009

I’ve always been annoyed by software that makes a distinction between upper and lower case. Other than passwords, there is no reason why a human should care. The only programmers who care are either too anal or too much like a computer to recognize that this is just weird. I’m not sure which group Google’s [...]

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