Comments on: Three ways to find a cool deal using Google

By: pricedropfinder.com

pricedropfinder.com — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:42:00 +0000

Well this is probably touting my own horn but why tweak Google when there’re niche sites available for “vertical price comparisons” to find a deal. By vertical I mean sites that track price histories and then you can decide whether a price is a deal or not. Yes my site does that (not repeating the link here per your policy)

By: SimplyForties

SimplyForties — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:32:27 +0000

How very interesting. A bunch of stuff I knew nothing about. I’m going to play and see what I get. Thanks!

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:38:18 +0000

Congratulations Ann, for your good effort!

However, one thing I must say…..why only Google. We will definitely use other search engines. For instance, Bing; Bing too offers best coupon deals and cash back. So, why not Bing? There is another Bing-like search engine; it’s AAfter Seach. It too offers cash back and coupon deals. You can also type LAPTOP deals in its search box to get the best deals on laptops. For more deals, you can click on its More Coupons Cash Back link.
I use both of Bing and AAfter; I use Google lesser than them.

By: Dimitri

Dimitri — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:03:42 +0000

My pleasure. I am a long time reader, first time commenter; I am glad that you recognized that my intention was only to contribute in a constructive manner.

Cheers,
Dimitri

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:00:36 +0000

Dimitri: Thank you for explaining those subtleties. I don’t think I would have caught them. I’ve fixed the post. Very much appreciate you taking the time to explain!

By: LeanLifeCoach

LeanLifeCoach — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:13:28 +0000

I love learning new trick and tips, thank you!

By: Dimitri

Dimitri — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:49:04 +0000

Oh…. the explanation of the * operator is a bit off too. The previously referenced links will explain why, but in a nutshell, it is not about related terms, it is about unknown terms within a defined string. Read here:
http://www.googleguide.com/wildcard_operator.html

Your example of [* laptops coupons] is identical to [laptops coupons] because you are telling Google to return documents with ‘laptops’ and ‘coupons’ and anything else. However, a search for ["coupons * laptops"] is different. That will return pages that match ‘coupons for laptops’, ‘coupons for Dell laptops’, ‘coupons blah blah blah laptops’, etc. However, it will NOT match ‘laptops blah blah coupons’ because the word order did not match the query.

Clear as mud?

Cheers,
Dimitri

By: Dimitri

Dimitri — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:43:11 +0000

Your example of the ‘or’ operator is a bit off, semantically. The operator takes precedence, so the way it is written [laptop coupons OR laptop deals OR laptop promotions] is interpreted as [laptop (coupons OR laptop) (deals OR laptop) promotions]. Note, that the first term of ‘laptop’ is required, as is the last term of ‘promotions.’ The two OR statements both have the option of ‘laptop,’ therefore that search is identical to just searching for [laptop promotions]. …and it shows in your returned results, which only list results matching [laptop promotions]. I think you meant to search this string:
[laptop (coupons OR deals OR promotions)].
THAT will get the results you are looking for.

Also note: the “pipe” character can also be used in place of the word OR. So, the following string is identical:
[laptop (coupons|deals|promotions)]

To learn more about proper syntax in advanced Google searches, try reading the linked docs at the bottom of this Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_hacking

Cheers,
Dimitri