Google Searching Techniques

Jennie DeLucia/JD Consulting Presentation Rochester Regional Library Council December 14, 2006

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Basic Operators
Use the plus sign (+) to force a search for an overly common word. Use the minus sign (- )to exclude a term from a search. No space follows these signs. To search for a phrase, supply the phrase surrounded by double quotes (" "). A period (.) serves as a single - c haracter wildcard. An asterisk (*) represents any wordnot the completion of a word, as is traditionally used

Basic Google Search Techniques

Phrase searches
To be or not to be What do you think you will find with this search? Google will find matches to any of these words on the page- not necessarily the phrase to be or not to be To find phrases make sure you quote the phrase
To be or not to be

Basic Google Search Techniques

Googles Basic Boolean
AND by default and the OR modifier This means that if you do not add any modifiers to a search Google will search for all the of the words
I.e. snow mobile Honda Rochester NY Google will search for all of these words and phrase I.e. snow mobile OR Honda OR Rochester NY What do you think you will find and does OR need to be capitalized? I.e. snow mobile (Honda OR Rochester NY) Parenthesis acts as the OR I.e. snow mobile (snowmobile | Rochester NY) In addition to using OR you can use the pipe symbol from programming

Basic Google Search Techniques

Negation
A minus sign directly in front of a word or phrase will exclude if from the search
I.e. snow mobile snow blower Rochester NY The minus sign must appear directly in from of the phrase or word Do now use a space or it will not work Do add a space though after the word that you are going to exclude

Basic Google Search Techniques

Explicit Intrusion
Google will search for all your keywords in a search except for the ones that they considered too popular to be of any use The list of these stop words are the following
http://www.ranks.nl/tools/stopwords.html I, a, about, an, this, that, the, where, when to name a few

Basic Google Search Techniques

Synonyms
The Google synonym operator is ~
I.e. ~ape What will you get in return? Monkey, gorilla, and chimpanzee

Synonyms are bolded along with exact keyword matches on the results page so they are easy to spot

Basic Google Search Techniques

Number range
The number range operator .. looks for results falling inside your specified numeric range
I.e. prada pumps size 5..6 I.e. digital camera 3..5 megapixel $800..$1000 It is KEY to always provide some sort of reference or clue as to the meaning of the range
I.e. $, size, kg, and so forth

Basic Google Search Techniques

Number ranges
You can also use the number range syntax with just one number, making the minimum or maximum of your query
I.e. acres Montana land 500.. I.e. raincoat dog ..$30

Note: Google normally doesnt recognize special characters like $, but because the $ sign was necessary for the number feature, you can use it in all sorts of searches Try these two searches to see the difference
yard sale bargains 10 yard sale bargains $10

Basic Google Search Techniques

Simple Searching and Feeling Lucky
Google decides which is the most relevant page for your search Is it reliable? Depends on your search Try searching Washington and see where it takes you Try searching president and see where it takes you

Basic Google Search Techniques

Case Sensitivity
Google is NOT case sensitive So, if you search for Three, three, THREE, or ThrEE you will get the same results.

Basic Google Search Techniques

Full-Word Wildcards *
Stemming is when you add a * or a ? at the end of a word to act as a wildcard
I.e. Searching for moon* will yield moons, moonlight, moonshot, etc.

Google DOES NOT support explicit stemming, BUT it implicitly stems for you For example, searching for dietary will yield results for diet and other variations on the theme.

Basic Google Search Techniques

Full-word Wildcards
Google DOES support full-word wildcard Although you cannot have a wildcard stand in for part of a word, you can insert a wildcard into a phrase and have the wildcard act as a substitute for one full word
three * mice will yield what results? * for one word; ** for two words, etc

Basic Google Search Techniques

The 10-word limit
Google has a hard limit of 10 words Thats keywords and special taxes combined Ignores anything beyond 10

Basic Google Search Techniques

Favor Obscurity Play the wildcard
When you have more than 10 words in a search, use * and or eliminate words from the exclusion list

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The site: operator instructs Google to restrict a search to a specific web site or domain. The web site to search must be supplied after the colon. Example
Site:www.google.com How many pages do you think you will hit?

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The filetype: operator instructs Google to search only within the text of a particular type of file. The file type to search must be supplied after the colon. Don't include a period before the file extension. Example
Site:www.google.com libraries More concise search

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The link: operator instructs Google to search within hyperlinks for a search term. Example
Link:www.rrlc.org What kind of pages did you find? Are you surprised?

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The cache: operator displays the version of a web page as it appeared when Google crawled the site. The URL of the site must be supplied after the colon. Example
Cache:www.rrlc.org Its the version cached on your laptop Another good site to track your website over the years is http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The intitle: operator instructs Google to search for a term within the title of a document. Example
Intitle:LibDex "parent directory"

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
The inurl: operator instructs Google to search only within the URL (web address) of a document. The search term must follow the colon. Example
inurl:rrlc inurl:library

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Allinurl: its a variation of the inurl and finds all the words listed in a URL but does not mix well with some other special syntax

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Inanchor: searches for text in a pages link anchors. A link anchor is the descriptive text of a link. Example, the link anchor in the HTML code <a href=http://www.oreilly.com>OReilly Media</a> is O Reilly Media
Inanchor:tom peters

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Datarange: limits your search to a particular date or range of dates on which a page was indexed Important to note that a datarange search has nothing to do with when a page was created, but when it was indexed by Google. I.e. Geri Halliwell Spice Girls datarange:2450958-2450968

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Related: as you might expect; finds pages that are related to the specified page. I.e. related:google.com This will return a variety of search engines including Lycos, Yahoo!, and Northern Lights

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Info: provides a page of links to more information about a specified URL. This information includes a link to the URLs cache, a list of pages that link to the URL, pages that are related to the URL, and pages that contain the URL I.e info:www.oreilly.com

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Operators
Phonebook: looks up phone numbers Phonebook: John Doe CA Phonebook: (555) 555-5555

Basic Google Search Techniques

Mixing Syntax
There are simple rules to follow when mixing syntax elements
Do not mix syntax elements that will cancel each other out
Site:ucla.edu inurl:ucla Here you are saying you want all results to come out from ucla.edu but that sites results should not have the string ucla in the results.

Basic Google Search Techniques

Mixing Syntax
Do not overuse single syntax elements
I.e. site:com site:edu

What you think youre asking for results from either .com or .edu, but youre actually saying is that site results should come from both simultaneously.

Basic Google Search Techniques

Mixing Syntax
Do not use allinurl: or allintitle: when mixing syntax It takes a careful hand not to misuse these Instead, stick in inurl: or intitle: If you do not put allinurl; in exactly the right place, you will create odd search results.

Basic Google Search Techniques

Mixing Syntax
Do not use so much syntax that you get too narrow Title:agriculture site:ucla.edu inurl:search Instead try
Title:plants site:ucla.edu inurl:database Or even better
Databases plants site:ucla.edu

Basic Google Search Techniques

Now that we know what NOT to do, lets work on mixing syntax
Titles and sites What search would we run to get an idea of what databases are offered by the state of Texas
Site:tx.us intite:search intitle:records

Basic Google Search Techniques

Title and URL
Sometimes you want to find certain type of information, but you dont want to narrow by type. Instead, you want to narrow by theme of information. Also, remember, inurl: syntax will search for a string in the URL, but wont count finding it within a larger word I.e. inurl:research will not find www.researchbuzz.com but it will find www.research - c o ucils.ac.uk

Basic Google Search Techniques

Google Advanced Search page
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl= en Options/filters such as language, file format, numeric range, etc

Google Hacking Techniques

Now that we know the basic and more advanced Google searching techniques, I can show you how potential hackers can gain information about your website

Archives.org
This is one of my favorite websites, its does not have anything to do with Google, but it I think you will find it interesting www.archive.org This is a hacker paradise..but why?

Google Hacking
What are common things that a hacker would want to find out about a website?
Administrative accounts Logs (error or auditing logs) What data is housed on the site Sensitive directories Advisory and server vulnerabilities

Google Hacking
The terms login and logon locate logon portals
Login | logon Why is this an issue? What type of information can a hacker find out about your website?

Google Hacking
Username | userid | employee.ID | your name is These are just a few ways to obtain a username from a target website
Site:www.rit.edu username | userid | your name is

Google Hacking
Password | passcode | your password is Perfect combo attack and/or reconnaissance work for a hacker to get a get a username and password to access a site Site:www.rit.edu username password

Google Hacking
Admin | administrator
Who doesnt want to find pages that potentially contain administrative/admin access? Site:www.rit.edu admin password What other ways or what other modifiers can we add to find more detailed admin information?

Google Hacking
-ext is a synonym for filetype Negative query What are we looking for with the following searches?
-ext:html ext:htm ext:shtml ext:asp ext:php http://www.filext.com/index.php- best site for finding any type of file extension

Google Hacking
Inurl:temp | inurl:tmp | inurl:backup | inurl:bak This will search for temporary or backup files or directories on a server There are many different naming conventions, but you can get the jist of it

Google Hacking
Intranet | help.desk We arent necessarily looking for private intranets, but you would be surprised as to what you find How many of you use your intranet on a daily basis? What type of information could someone find if they could gain access?

Google Hacking- Locating common login portals

ASP.net Microsoft Outlook Web Access Generic Admin Virtual Network Computing ColdFusion Admin Inurl:ASP.login_aspx Allinurl:exchange/logon. asp Inurl:login.asp VNC Desktop inurl:5800 Intitle:ColdFusion Administrator Login

Google Hacking- Locating Various Network Devices

Canon Network Camera Konica Printers Intitle:liveapplet inurl:LvAppl Intitle:network administration inurl:nic inurl:sts_index.cgi Inurl:live_status.html SNC - RZ30 HOME powered by webcamXP Pro|Broadcast

Xerox Phaser (generic) Sony Network Camera Webcam XP

Google Hacking- Locate Usernames

Microsoft Outlook Express Mail address books Access Databases containing profiles Remote Desktop Connection Various locked files Outlook Mail Web Access Filetype:wab wab

Filetype:mdb inurl:profiles Filetype:rdp rdp index of lck Inurl:root.asp?acs=anon

Google Hacking- Locate Passwords

FTP bookmarks HTTP htpasswd Web user credentials HTTP passwords Filetype:url + inurl:ftp:// + inurl:@ Filetype:htpasswd htpasswd Intitle:index of .htpasswd htpasswd.bak Filetype:pwd service

Microsoft Frontpage Service Web passwords Password list user Index.of passlist credentials

Google Hacking- Finding sensitive information

Cookies AIM buddy lists Excel sheet containing contact info MSN Messenger contact list Student grades Intitle:Index.of cookies.txt size Buddylist/blt filetype:xls inurl:contact Filetype:ctt ctt messenger Site:edu admin grades

Google Searching Techniques

Jennie DeLucia/JD Consulting Presentation Rochester Regional Library Council December 14, 2006