Using Google to search SpanishDict

Question

The next time you want to search SpanishDict, consider using Google. Google can search where the SD Q&A search can't. And Google allows search criteria that SD doesn't use. Often Google can search SpanishDict more effectively than SpanishDict can search itself.

Google recommends using this format to search a web site:
site:spanishdict.com your search words

Reference Articles may be found by going to the SD Q&A page and selecting Categories. The Reference Articles page has a search field...which cannot find reference articles! Google lacks this deficiency.
Example searches include:
site:spanishdict.com Reference Articles
site:spanishdict.com reference articles subjunctive
site:spanishdict.com reference articles classics of literature

Here is another item that SpanishDict cannot find. site:spanishdict.com Phrasebook
It is better to search the Phrasebook by using its own search capability.

Suggestion: Do a Google search for "site:spanishdict.com" without any search words. Bookmark the result, then use the bookmark for future searches.

SpanishDict search results usually only include questions submitted on the Q&A page. Google search results can include Q&A questions, Spanish Grammar topics, practice quizzes, blog posts, and more.
Example searches include:
por para
ser estar
I could not find a way to force Google to include only Q&A questions in its search results.

Google says that when a word or phrase is put in quotes, the results will only include pages with the same words in the same order as the ones inside the quotes. In my experience this is true.
SpanishDict says to use quotes to find a phrase. In my experience SD gives the same results whether or not quotes are used. And SD does not limit its search results to only pages that contain the phrase.
Example searches include:
"an out of the box approach"
"total frenzy"
"out of the loop"

Both Google and SpanishDict search in a question's title, description, comments, and answers.

Only Google can search for the member name that SpanishDict inserts to show who posted a question, made a comment, or supplied an answer. SpanishDict can find a member name only if somebody manually entered the name into, for example, a question's title or answer.

Only Google can search for a date or a portion of a date. By "date" I mean the posted, edited, comment, and answer dates that SpanishDict inserts.
SD date format: Feb 13, 2012

Google says putting a dash before a search word will exclude results which contain that word. For example, –direct will exclude all pages which contain the word DIRECT.

Note: Google is not perfect. For example, when searching for "the grammatical sentence of the day" SpanishDict finds 4 results that Google does not. (2010-03-25, -27, -28, -31)

SpanishDict Search Trivia
• SpanishDict does not show dates for a question until the question is about 3 days old. This means a Google search for a particular new question might fail if the search words include the current year or any other part of the SD date.

• SpanishDict only shows the first 12 characters of the member name that makes a comment or edit. For example, Bosquederoble has 13 characters in his name so a Google search for comments made by Bosquederoble would need to spell his name "Bosquederobl" without the final E.

Thanks for the info. :) - rac1, Oct 4, 2016

Excellent info - thanks for the extra effort made to share it. - Esteban_317, Jul 22, 2017

The way to restrict Google to only look in Q&A's is by using site:spanishdict.com/answers. - DilKen, Jul 22, 2017

I you want to see if a word appears in one specific long Q&A, you can search for the "word" and then add site:url, where url is the address of that question, starting with www.spanishdict.com/answers/....... do not include http:// .... start with www. - DilKen, Jul 22, 2017

I was surprised to see new comments on this old post. Thanks, Esteban & Ken. Ken, great points, I will start using them - mattb1of6, Jul 23, 2017

Answer 1

Very good advice, I use it all the time.

I did it this am to find my old pictures of my deck for the word of the day- I would not have been able to do that within Spanishdict. By the way I did use bosquederoble and still found it, also just Spanishdict, without the .com and site:

(My search was simply spanishdict bosquederoble terraza -and it worked perfectly).

Something happened the spring of 2012 that wiped out the ongoing nature of the search function, and as far as I can tell searches on this site itself only return things that were posted before that date. That includes users, flashcards, and questions.

It is really annoying with the flashcards, as you can search for a set that includes a certain word to find sets that have a theme that might match what you are currently studying. But you can’t find the new ones. I don’t know how to do that with flashcards on google.

True Bosque and my requests to improve the seach functions have been ignored. - ian-hill, Oct 4, 2016

I put it in the comments on the occasions when they give me a survey, but it has never changed. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 4, 2016

Using spanishdict by itself can produce results from non-spanishdict sites. Sometimes I find that to be a problem, depending on the search. - mattb1of6, Oct 4, 2016

Bosque, if your only response to a question is in the comments then a search with bosquederoble won't work. I learned this when I noted, but didn't have time to try, the link you posted in the question "List of common irregular verbs of different tenses". - mattb1of6, Oct 4, 2016

Later my searches failed when I used bosquederoble. I couldn't understand why and had to resort to manually thumbing through the current hot questions. - mattb1of6, Oct 4, 2016

Yes, if it is only the comments, I suspect the shortened version would be needed. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 4, 2016