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Show HN: Qdorks.com – Advanced Google search query composer (qdorks.com)

77 points by adriaanb ↗ HN
Hi HN,

qdorks.com is an advanced Google search query composer I have been working on lately. It makes it super easy to write complex Google search queries and save them for later usage.

Main features:

* Query composer with complex grouping, logical and exclusion operators per clause.

* Share your queries with others so they can easily copy and modify the query.

* No need to register; only when you want to save the queries.

* AI support for PRO users.

* More to come...

I am pretty happy with how it works and would love your feedback! Happy to answer any questions. Thank you!

37 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 75.4 ms ] thread
[dead] passwordoops
[flagged]
adriaanb
The name comes from "Google Dorking", but replaced Google with Q since it's basically query search string dorking :) Nothing to do with the current Q-hype!
spacebacon
Operation redefine Q within a reasonable objective reality for the sake of mental health.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
kylecazar
Neat! I am still not sure exactly how Google's 'Country' filter works.
adriaanb
Google uses different ways to decide if a webpage belongs to a specific country. Like domain name, search console country setting, server location, language, etc. Not sure if it's always 100% accurate...
kylecazar
Gotcha.. this makes sense. I was hung up on what they even meant by a website belonging to a particular country (as if we're all patriotically running sites on local servers or something).
nhggfu
via the gl=[2 letter country code] url parameter, i believe.

(Also useful is the ?pws=0 flag [to remove personalization])

adriaanb
I didn't knew about pws and just added it! Thanks.

For country, I am using cr and language the cl query param.

geraldwhen
Google is objectively worse than all other search engines. I don’t know why I would want to search Google more.
uneekname
I disagree, Google finds what I'm looking for more frequently than any other search engines I've tried. And I say this as someone who is looking to use Google less!
gumballindie
What is the alternative? Chat gpt and clones are rather wrong most of the time.
Terretta
kagi.com which is subscription instead of advertising so they understand who the customer is and what product they are selling to whom

// to be clear, google understands what product they are selling to whom as well -- it's just not search to you

geraldwhen
Yandex is my go-to for harder to find items, and other than that I use DDG. Google never gives good results.
adriaanb
The idea is to write one query and be able to view results on the major search engines. I have to investigate the supported advanced search feature for each first...
[dead] koolba
[flagged]
spacebacon
Blame viewport meta… I’m sure it’s an easy fix but author probably prefers components in place.
adaboese
Related to this, does anyone a good way to search only for articles?

I have a use case that requires that I only surface search results that are articles (news, blog posts, etc) rather than anything else.

The best I've gotten to so far is doing queries such as inurl:blog

mistermann
Some more options between last month and last year would be lovely, one of my main pet peeves about Google search.
adriaanb
There are some options for date-ranges, but haven't implemented this yet. Will dive into it and add something more flexible!
therein
This looks nice, no complaints there.

But all of this just for Google to ignore the advanced query parameters and show me something else it thinks I want is unfortunate.

adriaanb
It is not always 100% accurate, but still pretty good after a number of different tries.
fraXis
Great job! Please add/create a colorful favicon to the site so I can save it in my Google "bookmarks bar" without the name. Right now, it looks like this with a dark theme:

https://imgur.com/a/SNmzISI

adriaanb
Thanks, and that indeed looks a bit sad. Going on the hunt for something more colourful and let you know!
erhaetherth
The Country select box should allow you to type characters when it's focused. The native <select> will do this out of the box.
adriaanb
Good catch! I had a look, and it didn't work because of the flags, moving them after the country names fixed it. Thanks!
victorbjorklund
Doesnt seem to work on safari on iOS. Not responsive design and nothing happens when I press search button. Great idea though!
adriaanb
Thanks for letting me know, going to fix this asap!
doctaj
Same for iOS Firefox
matthews2
Firefox on iOS is just Safari in different clothes. Same engine.
akikoo
Looks like it's missing the verbatim search?

tbs=li:1

quickthrower2
It is a great idea. It feels like a feature missing from Google (and probably impossible for Google to deliver being hampered by material design)
arshxyz
Google did make something like this: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

It has a lot of options, even allows you to search ONLY the Text/Title/URL and you can filter by usage right (free for personal/commercial use etc)

Interestingly it was last updated before material design was a thing. Maybe it's nostalgia but I love the design language of Google had before material injected padding everywhere.

sa-code
That's a good point about padding. In trying to make their UIs "cleaner" they've made content impossible to fit unless you're maximized on a 27" screen (which is presumably how they develop)