Four Things Yahoo Can Do That Google Can't
T
here's a lot to love about Google. You You can also add special syntax, as in the
can easily find yourself using it a hundred link:http://www.thisistrue.com
times a day. But remember, there are site:edu example. Or do both! Want to find
search engines that can do things Google can't. out how many sites in the UK link to ThisisTrue
Blasphemy, you say? No way. While Google's and mention the name "Randy Cassingham"?
great, other search engines are always working link:http://www.thisistrue.com
to catch up. Here are four things Yahoo can do site:uk "Randy Cassingham" .
that Google can't. (And these are just four!
There may be others.) These kinds of searches are useful to
Webmasters trying to get a sense of who is
1. The Linkdomain: Syntax -- Yahoo offers a linking to them. They're also useful to searchers
linkdomain: syntax. Using it will show you the trying to find more localized and focused
pages in Yahoo's index which link to a particular information.
domain, not just to a particular URL (Google's
link: syntax shows links to URLs only.) If you 3. Loooooooong Queries -- Google has a search
searched Yahoo for limit of ten query words. In other words, if you
linkdomain:thisistrue.com , you'll find search for the words one through eleven, Google
sites which link to any page in the will inform you "'eleven' (and any subsequent
ThisisTrue.com domain, not just the index page. words) was ignored because we limit queries to
Proper use is important with this syntax! Make 10 words." Yahoo has no such limit. While it's
sure you don't include http:// on your search -- if true that you don't always need such searches,
you do the search will fail. ( this is wrong: sometimes it's handy. For example, you might
linkdomain:http://www.thisistrue.com ) be interested in biological anthropology. You
might want to check several college Web sites to
2. Mixing Link: Syntax -- Google offers a link: see what they have to say about it, but you want
syntax that allows you to see how many pages in to make sure they're very anthropology-oriented,
its index link to a particular URL. However, you and you want to make sure it's related to
can't use any other search terms or syntax when scholastic activities (so you include
you run that query. If you wanted to see what "department" as a query word.) This query
pages linked to thisistrue.com from educational works in Yahoo:
and university sites, you couldn't run the search
link:http://www.thisistrue.com site:edu "biological
anthropology"
. You won't get any results! But you can run that intitle:anthropology
search at Yahoo. Just add whatever query words department
you want to the initial search. You may, for (site:ucla.edu OR
site:harvard.edu OR
example, want to know what sites link to site:oxford.ac.uk OR
thisistrue.com and mention its editor, Randy site:duke.edu OR
Cassingham. You could site:ufl.edu OR
site:cam.ac.uk OR
run the search site:ncsu.edu)
link:http://www.thisistrue.com
"Randy Cassingham" . (Unlike linkdomain:, Unfortunately that query is too long for Google
Yahoo's link: requires that you use an http:// as and it'll give you an error message, while
part of the URL.) searching as much of it as possible. In your
normal course of searching you usually don't Don't misunderstand, Google's great. There are
have to do searches this long, but occasionally in fact things that Google can do that Yahoo
you might come across a quotation that's not can't! But to get the most out of the Internet you
easily broken up, or a group of domains that need to make sure there are many different tools
you'd like to search together. (Using Yahoo's in your searching toolbox, and that means being
ability to handle long queries, you could even aware of what some search engines can do that
group domains together in a custom search form others can't.
and have an easy way to search them any time.)
-- Written by Tara Calishain, author, Web
4. Searching for XML/RSS and plugging it Search Garage (Prentice-Hall, September
right into an aggregator -- Yahoo is more of a 2004.)
"portal" than Google is. It has a space where you
can set up an account and get the news that you
want, sports scores, weather, horoscopes, and so Liked these tips? Check out tips, tools,
on. While that's not often relevant to searching, resources, and more at ResearchBuzz (
in this case it is, because Yahoo has integrated http://www.researchbuzz.com ). Want to learn
an RSS reader into their offerings, and you can more about searching? Check out the new book
put RSS feeds into it right from your search Web Search Garage, from Prentice-Hall. Get
result. details at http://www.websearchgarage.com .
(If you're asking yourself, "What's an RSS
feed?" please see
www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml for
more information. Then come back here and
enjoy the rest of this groovy tip.)
If you go to Yahoo's Advanced Search Page (
search.yahoo.com/web/advanced ) you'll see
that you can narrow your results by file format,
and one of the formats you can search for is
XML/RSS. So say we're looking for RSS feeds
that are related to the sport of curling. Search for
the word curling and narrow your results to
XML/RSS. You'll see that the results are just of
XML/RSS feeds. Furthermore, you'll see that
some feeds have inside their results a link that
says "Add to My Yahoo!"
If you click that link when you're logged in to
Yahoo, You'll get a preview of what the feed
will look like, a brief description if one's
available, and the option to add the RSS feed to
your "My Yahoo" page. So you're able to go
from searching to adding RSS feeds in one easy
step! How cool is that?