The term “Google hacking” doesn’t actually refer to the act of hacking into Google’s web servers. Instead, it’s a method of leveraging Google’s immense search capabilities to find information that might not have been intended for public viewing.
Google’s Googlebot crawls nearly every nook and cranny of the Internet, looking for information as it classifies as much of the web as it can. Because it’s so effective, it can find many unsecured areas of web servers that some administrators did not intend for people to go looking. The result is a wealth of files, info, images, and documents that can be accessed just by using the right combination of search terms. There’s even a web site that’s amassed a list of Google searches that can yield specific information. It’s a bit techy, so let’s start with some simple stuff.
Let’s say you want to look for images just sitting in a directory. All you have to do is click on the link below. It’ll give you results for unsecured image directories. You can narrow the search by adding more specific terms, say “birds” if you want bird images. I’m sure your imagination can run wild. There’s some crazy stuff out there if you know what to look for.
You can repeat the search using the term “movies” instead. You’ll find a lot of research based movies from university sites, anything from solar flares to animals in their habitats.
Let’s take it in a new direction. Why don’t we search for resumes? In a sense, resumes are kinda for public consumption but maybe they weren’t meant to be directly seen by everyone on the Internet. Nevertheless, here they are for viewing.
There are a lengthy list of things you might want to find on the Internet. Experiment by changing the key search terms. You might be surprised by what you find!