How in the Tech

Return real-time search results in Google

By Adam Myers ⋅ October 27, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Google

Most users view Google as a simple and easy to use search engine, type in a few keywords in on the sparse search page and click search. Results are returned for your query and ideally you’ve found what you are looking for on the first page. Searching with Google is truly easy but it doesn’t have to be so simple – a vast array of options are uncovered if you click the Show Options link just above your returned results. Here you can return results from just forums and blogs or only content within the last few days.

In an effort to keep the Google interface clean, the designers at Google have hidden all the additional functionality from the main interface and as a result, I’m convinced the majority of users don’t take advantage of it. Now that I’ve perhaps uncovered new metrics to help you hone in on your search let me ask you if you were aware you could retrieve real-time search results in Google? Likely not, as it’s not even a clickable option under Show Options!

Keen Internet users may notice the &tbs=qdr: near the end of your Google search results URL when using the time-filter search. The characters immediately proceeding the colon are your date filter, such as d for day, s for seconds, or w for weeks. While Google doesn’t promote the real-time search functionality – mainly because it still is a work in progress – the feature can be unlocked by manipulating the search string URL.  A n10 would return all results scraped within the last 10 minutes.

Unfortunately this can be cumbersome to achieve. That’s why Steve Rubel has come up with a javascript bookmarklet to accomplish the same thing quite easily.