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OSINT Link Collection: Search Engines
OSINT Link Collection: Search Engines
OSINT Link Collection: Search Engines
Over time I’ve collected many useful links and small HOWTOs which I use during my OSINT investigations. They go
from very basic search techniques to more advanced social media data collection procedures. I will try to keep the
below list up to date but as always I do not take any responsibilities for any broken links. The (internet) world changes
just too fast.
Search Engines
Special Search Operators
Search only on a specific website:
FTP Searches
Only look on FTP sites:
1. Go to http://www.google.com/cse
2. Log on or create your own Google account
3. Type in all websites you would like to include in your search.
4. Add your search terms
5. Save your settings => you will now get your personal search URL
Search Monitoring Sites
Quite handy is a feature that allows you to actively monitor new search results. If you are interested in a certain topic
and you would like to see what’s new on the web you can use one of the following monitoring services:
Web Archive
If you need to go back in time and investigate how a website had looked in the past, check out web archives:
Google Cache => Use the drop-down next to a search result (http://www.google.com)
Bing Cache => Use the drop-down next to a search result (http://www.bing.com)
Archive.is (http://archive.is)
Image Searching
If you are more interested in pictures rather than text, use one of the following image search engines:
tineye (http://tineye.com)
Google Images (http://images.google.com)
Global File Search (http://globalfilesearch.com)
Ice Rocket (http://icerocket.com)
Ahmia (http://www.ahmia.fi)
Onion Cab (http://www.onion.cab)
Onion Link (http://www.onion.link)
Tor2Web (http://www.tor2web.org)
Not Evil (https://hss3uro2hsxfogfq.onion.to)
TORCH (https://xmh57jrznw6insl.onion.to)
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Hans%20Muster/users-named
Employment searches
People currently working for a company called “Apple”:
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Apple/pages-named/employees/present
People who worked for “Apple”:
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Apple/pages-named/employees/past
Employees with a certain name (in the example: “Hans Muster”) working for “Apple”:
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Hans%20Muster/users-named/str/Apple/pages-
named/employees/past/intersect
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/berlin/pages-named/residents/present
All facebook users with a certain name (e.g.: “Carl”) who live in “Berlin”:
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/berlin/pages-named/residents/present/str/Carl/user-
named/intersect
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/apple/pages-named/likers
Show all people who checked-in at “Crossfit Mayhem”:
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/crossfitMayhem/pages-named/visitors
https://www.facebook.com/search/results.php?q=carl.meyer@company.com
https://www.facebook.com/login/identify?ctx=recover
Useful Twitter searches
Twitter also gives you the opportunity to use advanced search techniques. First address is Twitters very own
advanced search feature:
http://www.twitter.com/search-advanced
Search by location
Search for tweets which are posted at a certain location:
https://twitter.com/search?q=geocode:59.3325800,18.064900,1km
http://ctrlq.org/first
site:twitter.com/NICKNAME
WHOIS Searches
Domain Big Data (http://www.domainbigdata.com)
IP Location Finder (http://www.iplocation.net)
CentralOps WHOIS (http://centralops.net/co/)
Hosterstats WHOIS (http://www.hosterstats.com)
Who.is (http://www.who.is)
reg.com WHOIS (http://www.reg.com/whois/)
Domaintools WHOIS (http://whois.domaintools.com)
Heise WHOIS (http://www.heise.de/netze/tools/whois)
If you need an explanation how to interpret the output of a WHOIS record, this site may help you:
Domain History
Always useful if you need to know the history of domain holders: