Yahoo search tips

Yahoo blog has posted some good time saving yahoo search tips for day to day searching.

1. To get more focused search use the following
1. Words within square brackets -- adding square brackets to your search makes the keyword match order dependent. So typing in '[Jack Black]' will return results such as 'jack with black' but not 'black jack.'
2. "inurl" -- if you want to be sure that a specific term will appear in the site's URL, use the "inurl:[query]" operator. For example: 'inurl:iPod.'
3. Site restriction -- to restrict your search to pages within a specific domain, use the "site:[domain]" operator, followed by your query. For instance: 'Site:Apple.com iPod.'
4. "orginurlextension" -- to search on specific file types, add 'originurlextension:[file format]' after your search query. For example: 'nanotechnology originurlextension:swf' OR 'nanotechnology originurlextension:pdf.'
2. If you want to track your package from yahoo, you can use the following method:

1. For UPS, type in your tracking number: '1z9999999999999999'
2. For FedEx or the U.S. Postal Service, add the name before the tracking number. Hypothetically: 'FedEx 999777333222' or 'USPS 03062400000176550683.'
2. You can search for definition of a term by adding "define" or "definition" to your search term and if you want to search for a synonym, add synonym to your search term.
3. To save time you can include following operators:

1. For excluding any terms you can use – operator. 'Simpsons -movie' returns results for "The Simpsons" TV show, books, games, etc., but not the movie.
2. You can use “OR” between two terms which will give you results of either “first term” or “second erm”
3. For exact phrase searching you can use “ “.
4. If you're looking for a Yahoo! site, simply add an exclamation point after the site name and voila! Try it out with 'Mail!,' 'News!,' 'Sports!,' or 'Finance!'
5. You can search for the airline and flight number and you'll get a shortcut to the flight's status. Try: 'American 83' or 'Lufthansa 421' for tracking flight status.
6. Traffic -- You can search for the traffic details. Example: 'traffic Los Angeles.' Click on the shortcut and you'll get a map with traffic alerts.
7. Maps -- You can search for different address on yahoo. You can also search even if you don't have the address. Add "map" before the city: 'map San Francisco.' You can also search for the zip code by itself: '20502.'
8. Yahoo open shortcuts: Yahoo! Open Shortcuts are the ultimate time-saving search feature. Add an exclamation point to the front of certain terms to instantly navigate to a URL, search a site, recall a favorite Yahoo! search, or start an application.

• '!wiki queen elizabeth' takes you directly to the Wikipedia page for Queen Elizabeth.
• '!wsf' gives you the Yahoo! Search results for "weather San Francisco."
• '!clist' takes you to Craigslist.
• '!ebay lamps' searches eBay for lamps

You can also create customized open shortcuts.

Some predefined Open shortcuts can be found at following url: http://search.yahoo.com/osc/list?ei=UTF-8&p=%21list