I'm sure you probably already know about Google dorking (also called Google Hacking). For those who don't know what it is - it's a way to narrow down your google search by using filters provided by Google. Example: if you are searching for a pdf of a book, you can narrow down your search using the filetype:pdf filter. If you want your search to only include a particular site you can use the site:<sitename.com>.

Without the filetype filter Without the filetype filter

I frequently use the site filter - mostly with reddit site:reddit.com. Ocassionally I also use it with stackoverflow.com and github.com. However, it's not quite pleasant to type it out!

I just found out about a shortcut you can use to avoid this typing. I've only tried this on chrome-based browser (Brave in particular) but I'm sure there's a similar feature in Firefox also.

Steps to configure shortcuts

  1. Right click on the address bar
  2. "Add" a new site search
  3. Configure shortcut
  1. Right click on the address bar. Click on the "Manage search engines & Site search" context menu.

Right click on the address bar Right click on the address bar

  1. You should see the "Search engine" & "Site search" sections. Click on "Add" in the site search section.

Add new site search Add new site search

  1. Finally just fill in the form

Here's an example of my shortcut for reddit site filter in google search.

Reddit site filter Reddit site filter

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:reddit.com %s

Using the shortcuts

This is my favorite part. Usually shortcuts involve chording keys. There's at least 2 keys involved and one's probably the Ctrl key. However, to use the site search shortcut you just need to type in the shortcut key that you configured and simply press space!

Using site search shortcut Using site search shortcut

Search Engine

You can follow the same procedure to add shortcuts for search engines also. I don't really use this because Google works fine for me. But in case you need to search with DuckDuckGo, for example, you have the option to set a shortcut.