This narrows down the results of an ambiguous search and excludes synonyms. "Search term": to find the exact match.Here are these basic Boolean operators to get you started:
How to Use Google Xray Search Google syntax for advanced searches So if you’re just starting out, you might want to look at an easy, no-code tool like Captain Data to do the job for you. However, these platforms aren’t that easy to scrape automatically. ?In this article, we’re presenting techniques that are specific to Google and LinkedIn. The entire process can be automated to find and enrich data on a large scale.
You can use this tool to find lead information such as emails, phone numbers, social profiles, and more.Īnd once you've found the right query, no need to type it into Google 50 times. site: inurl:/in firstname lastnameĪnd that's the power of Xray Search - using the right combination of search terms to get a 99% accurate result. Spoiler alert: the search string look more or less like this: Enter the right search string and you’re almost certain to find the corresponding profiles. Say you want to find the LinkedIn profile of a group of webinar attendees. Used correctly, you can reach a level of detail where you know you’ll get the right result 90, 95, or even 99% of the time. Xray Search 2.0īut that’s only the tip of the iceberg, you can go even further with Xray Search. Whether you’re on Amazon, Twitter, Indeed, or Instagram, advanced search operators will help you uncover more relevant results. This can be helpful if you are unsure if an author is listed first name then last or the other way around.Įxample: Ernest ADJ Hemingway will find both Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway, Ernest.In fact, the principle of X-Ray Search can be applied to all types of search engines. Near or N# searches for your two keywords regardless of the order in which they appear and are separated but a maximum of words apart.Įxample: tax N5 codes will find articles that have the words tax and codes a maximum of five words apart no matter the order in which they appear.ĪDJ (or adjacent to) is a way to link words into phrases like quotation marks, it tells the computer that the keywords must be found next to one another but unlike quotation marks the words can appear in either order. Key here is that repressed is BEFORE memory. Within or W# searches for your two keywords in the order of your search string with a maximum number of words between them.Įxample: repressed W8 memory will find articles that have the word repressed first with up to eight words apart from the word memory. Using N# or W# followed by a number tells the computer you want the two search words to be found within a certain number of words of each other. N# (near) and W# (within) are Proximity Operators that will connect words together similar to using the “quotation marks”. Not all search engines or databases accept Proximity Operators so make sure to read the help screen for more advanced help. Proximity (aka positional) Operators are not really part of Boolean Logic, but like Boolean they help formulate search statements.
S horting Manufactur* down to Man*, you would receive information about manufacturing, but you would also information about management, manuals, mankind, manipulation, and people named Manuel, etc. Manufactur* will search manufacturing, manufacturer, manufacture, manufactures.
Remember not to shorten the search term too much. Thus, you should use only the root word in a search string, but also use a wildcard to indicate that you want articles with all other forms of the word in them. Example: ski? OR ski* - other words that might be used in an article about "ski" are skiing, skier, and skis. If you were to type skier, you would miss all the articles about skiing or people who like to ski.
The * is for truncation or finding all of the various endings a word could have so a search for work * will find all of the words that start with work but have different endings such as work ing, work ed, work horse etc. Generally speaking the ? replaces a letter such as wom ?n will find wom en and wom an. (Note neither symbol can be the first character in your search term). Wild Card and Truncation symbols Searching using ? as a wildcard and * as a truncation symbol allows you to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.