Google query syntax query

December 19, 2005 11:28 AM

Google syntax query. So: I want to be able to find all the links to Site X, while filtering out all internal links from within Site X. I'm using [link:sitex.org -site:sitex.org] as my query and get about 3 results. However I know there are thousands of links out there. Others seem to have had the same problem. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
posted by carter to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I'd use Yahoo Site Explorer in "Inlinks" mode, with "Except from this domain" and "Entire site" options selected.
posted by mendel at 11:53 AM on December 19, 2005

Yeah, that's weird. Even weirder, a search for -site:metafilter.com or -site:anything returns 9+ billion entries with United Airlines, BH Photo, Chronicle of Philantropy, Home Gardening TV and Home Shopping Network as the top 5 hits. Are those actually the top 5 rated sites in all of google's index?
posted by boaz at 12:00 PM on December 19, 2005

Of course - there are other search engines besides Google - thanks, mendel!
posted by carter at 12:03 PM on December 19, 2005

boaz: maybe they're just the five least metafiltery!
posted by aubilenon at 12:36 PM on December 19, 2005

the syntax for this on regular Yahoo search is
linkdomain:yahoo.com -domain:yahoo.com
posted by masymas at 2:02 PM on December 19, 2005

sorry, my previous post might confuse. here it is more generally:
linkdomain:yoursite.com -domain:yoursite.com
posted by masymas at 2:04 PM on December 19, 2005

How about: inurl:sitex.org -site:sitex.org
posted by Rhomboid at 7:04 PM on December 19, 2005

Well they all work, but with sometimes widely differing results. Using nsdl.org as the example (see link in question), I get 62,238 external links with the Yahoo site explorer, ~75,700 with masymas' regular Yahoo search, and 731 with rhomboid's query. I guess it's still an inexact science. But thanks for your help, everyone!
posted by carter at 8:12 PM on December 19, 2005

Rhomboid ...
posted by carter at 8:13 PM on December 19, 2005