Why Searching for URLs On Google Is a Thing To Do

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One popular Sourcing “hacking” technique is by constructing or altering page URLs. Doing so can be useful when the site doesn’t have the search capabilities “officially” in its UI. This is the case with Facebook Graph Search, some LinkedIn “hack” searches, and more.

How do we learn the way to construct the URLs, particularly search URLs, if they are not “official” and not documented by the sites? Visually examining the URLs helps, but sometimes it’s not enough.

You can undoubtedly Google for something like facebook graph search links and will find some great material from blogs, Slideshares, etc. But there’s a better way to search, that will get you straight to the search URLs and uncover some that you won’t find as easily in other ways. So here is what to do:

Google for parts of the URL(s) in question, and you will find full URLs – and more URLs – to use in your Sourcing.

When we search in this fashion, we’ll often find pages from sites for “techies,” like StackOverflow and Github, and sometimes non-English posts, along with blogs and presentations – all quite useful!

(Note that, while we are using page URLs, these searches are entirely different than searching with the operators site: and inurl:).

Let me show you, for example, how we can be looking for Facebook Graph Search URLs. The more specific URL pieces we put in a search, the more concrete related examples we will find (along with the experts who posted them!).

It’s important to remember, information on blogs and in presentations can be outdated or incorrect; we always need to verify it.

Want to learn more about Facebook Graph searches specifically? Check out our online class. We offer classes about Googling as well.

If you search for pieces of URLs and find exciting new hacks (sourcing on Facebook or outside), roup please share on our Facebook Boolean String Group!

 

 

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