Use of tilde ~ operator in Google to target regions?

[Adam Fenstermaker]

Has anyone tried using "~" to target candidates in a particular region?

I've found the "~USA" will match California, Florida, New York, and Chicago - but not Memphis or Detroit

I've also found the ~PA will match Pittsburg and Allentown - but not Philadelphia

It would be great to know if there is a better way to use this or if there was a list of all the keyword matches these produced. Any thoughts or documentation from Google?

[gary cozin]

Adam-

Here's Google's definition of the tilde (~) symbol:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html#query
Look under the section "Choosing Keywords" for synonym search

It's a synonum for the search terms you use - it will find terms that mean the same as the term your using. It doesn't do will for states - but it is good for many other terms such at titles; ~developer, etc.

[Adam Fenstermaker]

Gary - thanks for the response - I should have clarified in my original post what the operator does for those who may not know - thanks for the documentation link and explanation. I do use ~ frequently for things like ~developer - but trying to figure out if there is practical application for region.

[gary cozin]

Understood, Adam-

Better to spell out all the areas. You could use the number range of zip codes vs listing all cities/states, such as 10001..10100; I've used it many times for a particular zip code area - but not for mulitple - may want to try it. ex: 10001..10538 OR 07302..08411 etc

Adam Fenstermaker said:

Gary - thanks for the response - I should have clarified in my original post what the operator does for those who may not know - thanks for the documentation link and explanation. I do use ~ frequently for things like ~developer - but trying to figure out if there is practical application for region.

[Kelly]

Hi Adam! I've played with this too... the problem with the tilde is that it's not really just synonyms...it's more like "related words", and there's no documentation of what Google considers a "related word". What I have found is that often, but not nealry always, the related words can be found on the list of words that Google produces with a Google Sets search of the same keyword.

With ~PA, you unfortunately get "PARK" as a hit (????) and "physician assistant" as that is also abbreviated PA. It amazes me that Phildalpehia is not returned as a hit, but Allentown is! (I'm from Philly originally... Go Eagles!) While the tilde works great in some cases (search criteria dependent), is brings back junk other times, and not everything you would expect to see most times.

Google's got work to do here.

[Adam Wiedmer]

Adam, there IS a way to figure out what exact keywords Google will consider to be synonyms.

http://www.synonymlab.com/

When youtype in a keyword, you will get a list of related words below and it links directly to the Tilde search in Google if you want to try it out. This is a great tool for making sure that searches are not redundant.

[Adam Fenstermaker]

Adam - awesome - thanks!

Adam Wiedmer said:

Adam, there IS a way to figure out what exact keywords Google will consider to be synonyms.

http://www.synonymlab.com/

When youtype in a keyword, you will get a list of related words below and it links directly to the Tilde search in Google if you want to try it out. This is a great tool for making sure that searches are not redundant.

[Adam Fenstermaker]

wow - this is very revealing - such as "~developer" will match java but not other programming languages. Makes me question use of that. on the other hand ~CFO seem prety effective use of synonym.

[Kelly]

Wow! Synonymlab is fabulous! Thanks Adam!!!! Is there any doumentation of how google makes these decisions?

Adam Wiedmer said:

Adam, there IS a way to figure out what exact keywords Google will consider to be synonyms.

http://www.synonymlab.com/

When youtype in a keyword, you will get a list of related words below and it links directly to the Tilde search in Google if you want to try it out. This is a great tool for making sure that searches are not redundant.

[Kelly]

Quick question - with synonymlab.com are the words google will look forin BLUE only, or also all of the words listed after each of those. I've found some in consistency here... would love to know more!

Adam Wiedmer said:

Adam, there IS a way to figure out what exact keywords Google will consider to be synonyms.

http://www.synonymlab.com/

When youtype in a keyword, you will get a list of related words below and it links directly to the Tilde search in Google if you want to try it out. This is a great tool for making sure that searches are not redundant.