Google Hacks, 2nd Edition

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Gather a list of what Google thinks are synonyms for a keyword you provide.

The Google ~ synonym operator ["Special Syntax” in Chapter 1] widens your search criteria to include not only the specific keywords in your search, but also words Google has found to be synonyms of, or at least in some way related to, your query words. So while, for example, food facts may only match a handful of pages of interest to you, ~food ~facts seeks out nutrition information, cooking trivia, and more. And finding these synonyms is an entertaining and potentially useful exercise in and of itself. Here’s one way...

Let’s say we’re looking for all the synonyms for the word “car.” First, we search Google for ~car to find all the pages that contain a synonym for “car” In its search results, Google highlights synonyms in bold, just as it highlights regular keyword matches. Scanning the results (the second page is shown in Figure 2-1) for ~car finds car, cars, motor, auto, BMW, and other synonyms in boldface.

Figure 2-1. ~car turns up bolded synonyms in Google search results

Now let’s focus on the synonyms rather than our original keyword, “car.” We’ll do so by excluding the word “car” from our query, like so: ~car -car. This saves us from having to wade through page after page of matches for the word “car.”

Once again, we scan the search results for new synonyms. (I ran across automotive, racing, ...