Do you know you can search major news sites like The Forbes directly from Google? When you start typing the site’s name, on top of search results an entry with sitelinks will appear. It’s easy to miss the last thing, but it’s there: a search box that lets you perform a site-specific search without visiting that site.
The search will return the usual term used to narrow results to a single domain. So, for instance, if you want to search Forbes for a keyword “kindle”, the little search box will return results for (and this is what you’ll see in a major search box on top of the page):
kindle site:forbes.com
Curious to see how popular is this feature, I’ve tested many sites, but for now, only major news sites have the advantage of getting it. Besides Forbes, there are The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic.
First question that comes to mind: “is this enabled for commercial sites?” No. I’ve checked Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, eBay, and also Google Books and Google Shopping – no search boxes under sitelinks.
This is a rather handy feature that makes people spend more time on Google. It’s especially useful for those who don’t know or don’t remember all the search tricks Google offers. I’m glad to see that, as I very often use the site-specific search to find items on Kobo or iBooks Store.
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