Beginner's Guide -- XRay/Google Boolean Search

What is X-Ray/Boolean search –> X-Ray search or Boolean search allow user to perform searches on any search engine using Boolean operator and/or Query Modifiers. Google search engine is the most preferred search engine by the user to perform X-ray search.

Before going in more detail how to perform x-ray search, first we need to understand about Boolean operator & Query Modifiers.

Boolean Operators – BO used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search. Majorly we are going to use 3 BO in X-ray search.

AND operator – Basically AND operator work as conjunction operator & add 2 or more keyword in given search. For example, if we want a java developer from Chennai then we can write search string in given manner - [java AND developer AND Chennai]

OR Operator – OR operator help us to explore the choices between 2 or more keyword. For example, if we want java developer from Bangalore, Chennai, or Delhi then we can use OR operator in search string in given manner - [Bangalore OR Chennai OR Delhi]

NOT operator – NOT operator help us to excludes unwanted terms from our string. We can use minus (-) sign before the keyword which we want to exclude from our search result. For example if we do not want recruiter profile in search result while performing our java developer search then we have to use minus sign(-) before recruiter keyword. We can write search string in given manner - ?[Java AND developer -recruiter]

Query Modifiers -

With the help of query modifier, we can narrow down our search. I have listed down few modifiers which we do use frequently in x-ray search.

?Always ensure that the keyword next to the modifier is not separated by a space. Below is the format to use query modifier

[Modifier:keyword]

List of Modifier--

site: This modifier targets the search engine on a specific URL or domain and output would be limited within the particular website or domain.

?????????Example1 - ??site:Handigital.com ( result will be limited to within the Handigital.com)

?????????Example2 -??site:.in (result will be limited to the website that falls under .in operator)

?inurl: This modifier will only return web pages that have given keyword in URL.

???????????Example – inurl:Shivam (we will get the webpages where Shivam is mentioned in URL)

intitle: Intitle searches for a word within the title of the webpage.

???????????Example – intitle:Shivam(We will get the webpages where Shivam is mentioned as title)

filetype: By using this modifier we can narrow our result to particular file type like pdf, doc, docs, ppt etc.

????????????Example – site:linkedin.com filetype:pdf ?(We will get webpages which contains pdf file.)

wild card (denoted by *) – We can use an asterisk (*) to get more results for the term we are looking for.

???????????Example - admin* will return - administrator, administration, administer, administered, etc.

How to perform X-ray search – First thing we need to understand that we get the result data which is available for public (publicly available data). X-ray search won’t help you to get privately held data like contact details.

Most of the time we use x-ray search on LinkedIn.com because we get better result here as compare to other websites. But we can apply x-ray search on other website like Facebook, stack overflow, Github, Twitter etc.

If you want to become an expert in X-ray search then you should have good understanding about how any URL work, save & publish web content/data, along with Boolean search & Query Modifiers.

Example 1- We want java developer along with microservices experience

????????[ Site:linkedin.com java AND developer AND microservices ]

??Result will contain job advertisement, articles, profiles etc., but our need is to get professional’s profile. Now we have to tune our query by using inurl modifier here

?????????[site:linkedin.com java AND developer AND microservices inurl:pub]

??Check the result & let me know your output in comment.

??If you want to refine search with location (Chennai) and do not want recruiter or manager profiles

??????????[site:linkedin.com java AND developer AND microservices AND Chennai ?inurl:pub -recruiter -manager]

??Check the result & let me know in comment.?

Example 2- We want professional from India who is currently working as a Director.

??????????[site:in.linkedin.com “current * Director” ]

??I have mentioned ‘in.linked.com’ instead of linkedin.com, now this is your task to learn, why did I use 'in.linkedin.com'.

Example 3- In this example we will see how to perform x-ray search on stackoverflow.com

?????????[site:stackoverflow.com/users java developer Chennai]

??we will receive the users profile who has mentioned java developer in his/her profile & current location as Chennai.

Note 1- Please do more practice to become hand-on in X-ray search.

Note 2– X-ray search won’t provide contact detail of any person. X-ray will provide someone's profile only and if you want to know contact detail of that person then you have to connect with that person by sending connection request or message. ?

Note 3- I will publish some more article in coming days. Please do write your feedback/comment about this article.