Fine-Tuning Your Blog Search Query

Entering a Google Blog Search query is very similar to entering a standard Google web search query. Just enter one or more keywords into the search box, click the Search button, and you're on your way.

There are, however, some advanced search options you can apply to fine-tune your search results. Read on to learn more.

Using Advanced Search Operators

It's important to know that all the search operators you learned about in Chapter 2, "Searching the Web," can be used with Google Blog Search. Remember to enclose phrase searches in quotation marks, to use the + and - and OR operators, and to use advanced operators such as link: and intitle: as appropriate.

In addition, Google Blog Search has its own collection of blog-specific search operators that you can use. These operators are detailed in Table 6.1:

Table 6.1. Google Blog Search Operators

Operator	Description	Usage
inblogtitle:	Limits the search to words contained in the blog's title.	inblogtitle:keyword
inposttitle:	Limits the search to words contained in the titles of individual blog postings.	inposttitle:keyword
inpostauthor:	Limits the search to postings by a specific poster.	keyword:inpostauthor:name
blogurl:	Limits the search to a particular blog, as defined by the blog's web address (URL).	keyword blogurl:www.blogurl.com

Using the Advanced Search Page

If you don't like using search box operators, you can achieve the same results by using the Google Blog Search Advanced Search page. You get to this page by clicking the Advanced Search link on the main Google Blog Search page.

As you can see in Figure 6.6, the Advanced Search page contains a number of search restrictions, all accessible by filling in the appropriate blanks or selecting items from a pull-down list. Table 6.2 details the advanced search options available on this page:

Figure 6.6. Google Blog Search's Advanced Search page.

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Table 6.2. Google Blog Search Advanced Search Options

Option	Description	Same As This Operator
Find posts with all of the words	Standard Google search, assuming the AND operator before each keyword.	N/A
Find posts with the exact phrase	Searches for exact phrases only.	" "
Find posts with at least one of the words	Searches for either one keyword or another.	OR
Find posts without the words	Excludes words from the search results.	-
Find posts with these words in the post title	Searches the titles of blog postings only.	inposttitle:
In blogs with these words in the blog title	Searches blog titles only.	inblogtitle:
In blogs at this URL	Searches posts within a specific blog	blogurl:
By Author: blogs and posts written by	Searches posts made by a specific user.	inpostauthor:
Dates: posts written	Searches only those posts written in the last hour, last 6 hours, last 12 hours, last day, past week,past month, or anytime.	N/A
Dates: posts written between	Searches only those posts written within a specified date range.	N/A
Language: posts written in	Searches only those posts written in the specified language.	N/A
SafeSearch	Turns on or off Google's SafeSearch content filtering.	safesearch:

Advanced Searching from Blogger

If you use the Blogger Blog Search page instead of the Google Blog Search page, you have access to a different set of advanced search options. You can view a similar Advanced Search page (shown in Figure 6.7) by clicking the Advanced Search link, or view a more user-friendly subset by clicking the Use

Figure 6.7. The Advanced Search page at Blogger Blog Search.

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Search Options link. When you click this link, the main search page changes to include the following options, shown in Figure 6.8:

Figure 6.8. The expanded search options available at the main Blogger Blog Search page.

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• In blogs (searches specific blogs only)

• Dates within (searches postings made within the last hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, day, week, or month)

• Dates between (searches postings made within a specified date range)

• Find references to this URL (searches postings that include a link to the specified web address)