Google Search Options - Update

02.10.2009 Posted in Search

Google have now introduced some more options on their search to expand on the features we discussed in our previous article on search options.

Pages already visited

The first new feature is one I personally love. It’s the ability to narrow down your search results to sites (not really pages as the name suggests) that you have been to before. So you remember when you found that cool article last month showing you how to do exactly what you suddenly need to do? Can’t find it? Then use this new option to narrow down the results only to sites you’ve looked at in the past.

For instance, I remember looking for hotels in Turkey and finding one I really liked, but I didn’t bookmark the page and I don’t know where it is now. I do a search that I think might get me there, but none of the results look like what I am seeking:

I narrow the results down to just sites that I have been to before:

Immediately I can see sites that I visit (or have visited) that match the search query I’ve used. Hey presto, there’s the one I wanted up at the top.

More Shopping Sites

Looking for a particular product? Are you researching or looking to buy?

Well now Google can help focus the results for you.

You can choose to view more shopping sites if you’re looking to buy, and you’ll see lots of sites with expanded results and all the flashy price comparison options:

If you’re only browsing and would rather read a review, select “fewer shopping sites”:

The ads don’t change, and most of those will be for shopping sites, but the main results filter pretty well. Better at filtering out shopping sites than filtering out reviews, anyway.

Forum results

If you want to view mainly results from forums postings, Google are now pretty good at identifying those and giving you lots of options for that, filtering out all else:

Above you can see that the results from my search are now exclusively from forums, and I am seeing expanded results with lots of options of threads from each site. It seems pretty useful if you need a question answered, because it’s likely somebody will have asked that question before, but your results won’t be clogged up with less helpful generic pages.

Do you have any innovative uses for these? Things you always found difficult that are now easy with the options? Let us know in the comments.