post written by: Marc
Turn Google into Napster 2000
Okay peeps, I’m sure most of you know how to use Limewire and Bittorrent these days. But, I’ll bet you haven’t used Google to perform a quick Mp3 search for the nagging song that’s been stuck in your head all day. The truth is that Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. This functionality has been available for a long time, but most users haven’t caught on to it. So here’s a quick example of how to use Google to search for Mp3s. It’s like turning Google into the Napster of 2000.
The following is a Google search string for searching open web directories containing downloadable Nirvana music files. Substitute the term Nirvana in the search string for any other band of your liking. You can always bookmark the search result for future use.
With some very slight modifications the same search string can easily be used to search for ebooks in DOC and PDF format:
Or perhaps your looking for some specific video file:
You can check the official Google Advanced Search Operators page for further details on editing this search string to meet your specific needs. Enjoy yourselves!
For more awesome Google hacks and tricks, check out:
- Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World’s Information
- Google: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks (Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks)
- Google Hacking for Penetration Testers, Volume 2
NEW - Check out our Google File Search Interface:
Google 2 Napster File Search (Mp3, MPG, AVI, PDF, ZIP, Torrent)
A simple web interface using advanced Google file search queries.
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94 Comments
October 13th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Google search hacks are pretty powerful. A site has actually been created to give a nice interface to this sort of Google music search. Thought you might find it useful.
http://www.ironlab.org/projects/findmusic.php
October 13th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
why can’t someone mock up a quick desktop app to do these searches more easily?
October 13th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Here is another good web interface for the same Google mp3 hack. The tool is at http://g2p.org/
October 13th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Thanks for that, this will definately come in handy!
October 13th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Great technical info.
For the less tech savvy there is this mashup site that does the same thing
http://g2p.org/
October 13th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Great info, but this stuff has been known for awhile now. At least among the tech savvy.
http://www.g2p.org/
http://www.tyoogle.com
http://www.geocities.com/my_haz_runs/
October 14th, 2006 at 3:23 am
g2p.org or tyoogle.com is also a great place for people to start on this.
I once mixed “live” using combination of Media player and downloads from Google using this method. Start with one song and download the next related song and mix it in before the first one finishes. Then keep going! The best I managed was about 15 minutes I think. The only rule is that the file has to come from a different site each time.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Good Hack… i see a similar thing with password of cms on google source code..
:D
October 14th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
This begs the question whether one could create a front end to google that actually functioned like napster using google as the driving mechanism. ajax style napster anyone?
October 14th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Done! G2P.org This guy uses the same concept but a slightly diff. search string. He has a v.informative google hacking page about how to search for other cool stuff. You can find it here:
http://www.i-hacked.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=23
October 15th, 2006 at 2:29 am
This also works:
mp3 OR wma OR ogg OR anonymous “parent directory=” -module -modules
October 15th, 2006 at 10:49 am
How can I locate PDFs or .mpp files?
http://mungobah.blogspot.com
October 15th, 2006 at 11:14 am
[…] Hei fir d’Detailer. […]
October 15th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
[…] -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) “Nirvana” Just substitute the term “Nirvana” for any band or singer you might be looking for, and your search will lead you to open indexes that contain downloadable music files. — Wendy Boswell […]
October 15th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
[…] Coming from Marc and Angel via Lifehacker, this is a great tool for getting some free, just do a search for this….. […]
October 15th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
[…] Turn Google into Napster 2000 [Marc and Angel] […]
October 15th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
[…] + Turn Google into Napster 2000 [Marc and Angel] […]
October 15th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
[…] Title seems to say it all… Turn Google into Napster 2000 […]
October 15th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
[…] Problems searching for mp3 on the Web? Have a look at this interesting entry in Lifehacker. Turning Google into a kind of Napster is actually not that difficult. […]
October 15th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Another site that allows you to do this without actually remembering the special keywords - http://www.goofile.be.
enjoy.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
…Turn Google into your own personal (free)…
October 15th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
[…] Google search tips: http://www.marcandangel.com/2006/10/13/turn-google-into-napster-2000/ […]
October 16th, 2006 at 1:43 am
[…] I’ll bet you haven ’t used Google to perform a quick Mp3 search for the nagging song that’s been stuck in your head all day. The truth is that Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. This functionality has been available for a long time, but most users haven’t caught on to it.read more | digg story […]
October 16th, 2006 at 2:28 am
do u know where i can download psy trance from?
October 16th, 2006 at 2:52 am
The Google Cheat Sheet includes how to do this, and more…
Link: http://www.adelaider.com/google/
October 16th, 2006 at 2:54 am
I have never thought of something like this. Do you think its wrong. But anything is possible nowadays. We creat the technology and we control it and not the other way round.
The tech shld not control as at all.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:18 am
Cool stuff, thanks a lot.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:18 am
[…] Sometimes i like Google for the new tools and gadgets developing, see this search and the screenshot, taken from Google’s hidden area 51, why i like it? Well, it shows my icon on first site instead of other images, now that’s really cool. For more info about searchmash at em-brof and webpronews, while Danny Sullivan has an official respond of G. More news about G at Infothought, or turn G into your own Napster like decribed at marc and angel. Google has yet to officially comment on SearchMash, but the privacy policy makes its role perfectly clear. “SearchMash is a website operated by Google Inc.,” declares the very first sentence. Google may have been trying to keep that connection quiet so as not to affect any of its SearchMash experiments, but the cat is clearly out of the bag and running loose in the blogosphere. […]
October 16th, 2006 at 6:43 am
old old old news ..everyone and there grandma knows this one.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:27 am
Definitely an awesome catch here. I told my roommate and a bunch of my friends about, they love it! Thanks for sharing this awesome search.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:30 am
I’ve been using this to find some lovely, relative rarities I couldn’t locate elsewhere - I got an MP3 of the “Marching Season” drum solo as performed by Charlie Adams during a Yanni concert. I have the Live at the Acropolis video which features it and also own the CD, but it doesn’t have the drum solo.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:37 am
I used to search for MP3s just like this, but people began to realize it wasn’t so clever to leave their apache directories open to the web when their monthly bandwidth bills came in.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:39 am
[…] I’ll bet you haven ’t used Google to perform a quick Mp3 search for the nagging song that’s been stuck in your head all day. The truth is that Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. This functionality has been available for a long time, but most users haven’t caught on to it.read more | digg story […]
October 16th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Many of the actual record company sites utilize Flash to play MP3’s that are stored on the site and referenced through ActionScript. You can utilize Firefox to browse your cache for “mp3″ for sites dumb enough to do this.
http://www.douglaskarr.com/2006/08/10/firefox-flash-hack-download-justin-timberlakes-new-song/
October 16th, 2006 at 7:45 am
[…] read more | digg story Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: . […]
October 16th, 2006 at 7:52 am
You have to go thru 10 sites to find one song. Just use limewire you oh-so-cool dumbasses.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Holyshit this is awesome!
and personally I use Ares a FREE P2P program. Unlike limewire/napster everyone is equal online and content is easy to find.
But your search engine I was able to find a queen album I’ve wanted.
Thankyou!
October 16th, 2006 at 10:12 am
[…] http://www.marcandangel.com/2006/10/13/turn-google-into-napster-2000/ […]
October 16th, 2006 at 10:48 am
http://www.srchfor.com is a great one…
October 16th, 2006 at 11:39 am
[…] Un blog llamado Marc y Angel nos muestra como podemos ocupar Google para buscar MP3s, Documentos o videos. Mas alla de los populares Limewire and Bittorrent , hoy podemos comenzar a usar el buscador que ocupamos casi todos los dias, si porque el gran Google ahora nos permite encontrar archivos para poder bajar la musica que nos gusta. […]
October 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am
[…] Turn Google into Napster 2000 […]
October 16th, 2006 at 11:48 am
is there a website like g2p but for apps. ?
October 16th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
You’re not going to find very many mp3s on google.
Try a search for “mp3 filetype:mp3″. You get 986 hits. Out of all the millions of mp3s on the internet it finds only 986 because these results have been filtered at the request of you-know-who.
You used to be able to find music by searching for filetype:ogg instead of mp3, however about 6 months ago they started blocking those too. In fact, the ogg filter is now so restrictive that if you search for filetype:ogg, you get only one site (wikimedia.org).
Google is pretty much bending over backwards for the RIAA. You are not going to find music with google by searching for “mp3″ unless the site is on their (very short) whitelist.
October 16th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Genius idea! and i am not being sarcastic.
October 16th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Agreed with much of what was said here. This method can sometimes be effective but usually requires half an hour or more of searching before you can finally get a hold of a complete and valid version of the song you are looking for. It is generally most effective for the overplayed crap on the radio. If you want a more obscure song, or one that hasn’t had much attention recently, you’re going to have to find different solutions.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
screw google, just use altavista’s mp3/audio search. It’s implemented right into their search engine. You can look for mp3’s, wav, mpeg, you name it. I’ve been using it for a good couple years now, and it comes in handy so much I’ve decided to add it to my firefox toolbar.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Funny, when a hosting plan looks to good to be true then it is.
Look at what they offer for $9.99
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Too bad they don’t mention the whole CPU quota issue…
October 16th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Bluehost does not appear to be able to handle “digg effects”. Bluehost crumbles under the pressure of a front page digg article. Not cool.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Try http://www.g2p.org if you’re lazy. Also, try http://www.singingfish.com which works for both audio and video. It returns a nice-looking set of results (read: not just plain text). Also, http://www.sogou.com is useful too…just translate it from Chinese (Traditional, I believe). You’ll see a music button and after a search, just click on the little button that looks like a hard drive with an arrow pointing down. It’s not too hard.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Here is the best solution: http://www.srchfor.com ! I use it.
October 16th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
[…] Marc and Angel » Blog Archive » Turn Google into Napster 2000 (tags: Hack Google) […]
October 16th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
[…] Check this page out for more examples. Also, here is a cheat sheet of operators that Google support. […]
October 17th, 2006 at 2:46 am
[…] Excelent article… Source: Marc and Angel […]
October 17th, 2006 at 7:24 am
Google + Firefox = Free Music Downloads…
There’s a lot you can do with Google if you can take advantage of it’s advanced search features. Expanding on this tip which shows you how to find music in open directories, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough on how to use Firefox S…
October 17th, 2006 at 9:54 am
[…] Use Google to search for mp3s: Original Here […]
October 17th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
OMG that is awesome!
thanks so much for posting your knowledge. that Rocks!
Cheers
October 17th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for this useful info… My search results are now better and Google points out exactly what I need!
October 18th, 2006 at 6:16 am
[…] Hack ist wahrscheinlich ein bisschen der falsche Begriff, allerdings wurde ich gerade darauf hingewiesen, dass es google search strings gibt, mit denen man mp3 dateien, ebooks etc finden kann. Klingt interessant. Mehr […]
October 18th, 2006 at 8:44 am
[…] Vía Baluart.net me entero de este truco el cual es bastante útil y no me lo sabía, y como el artículo está tan bueno, lo copio textualmente: Este es un excelente y eficaz truco (visto en marcandangel) para encontrar y descargar mp3 con Google y, además, muy simple de llevar a cabo. Basta con copiar y pegar la siguiente instrucción en el buscador, para encontrar, por ejemplo, mp3 de “shakira”: […]
October 18th, 2006 at 10:43 am
[…] I’ll bet you haven ’t used Google to perform a quick Mp3 search for the nagging song that’s been stuck in your head all day. The truth is that Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. This functionality has been available for a long time, but most users haven’t caught on to it.read more | digg story […]
October 18th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
nice discovery and thanks for sharing!
October 18th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
[…] Traceback: So habe ich mich also vor den Computer gesetzt, die letzten Folgen von Ehrensenf gekuckt (bin immer etwa eine Woche hinterher) und dabei auf einen interessanten Google Hack (Verwendung auf eigene Gefahr) gestossen. Wenn man die richtigen Operatoren kennt, kann man mit Google nämlich auch mp3s oder andere Mediadateien suchen. Da als Beispiel-Suchbegriff Songs von Nirvana gesucht werden, fühlte ich mich irgendwie in meine Teenager-Jahre zurückversetzt. Ich hörte mir einige Songs, die ich früher besonders gerne mochte, an, und wurde richtig nostalgisch. Daraus wurde dann so etwas wie eine Reise durch meine musikalische Vergangenheit. Es tat ganz gut, doch irgendwie bin ich auch froh, vieles davon zurückgelassen zu haben. […]
October 19th, 2006 at 4:21 am
Thanks for the nice tutorial and idea!
Found through Lifehacker.
October 19th, 2006 at 9:56 am
[…] I’ll bet you haven ’t used Google to perform a quick Mp3 search for the nagging song that’s been stuck in your head all day. The truth is that Google can be used to conduct a search for almost any file type, including Mp3s, PDFs, and videos. This functionality has been available for a long time, but most users haven’t caught on to it.read more | digg story […]
October 19th, 2006 at 10:04 am
[…] Turn Google into Napster 2000 [Marc and Angel] […]
October 20th, 2006 at 4:04 am
[…] Link: Google Musiksuche […]
October 20th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Greetings from Germany, extrabreit. Perfect website! But unfortunately my music is not to be found in the Internet, probably too extravagant. Momentane Lieblingsband: such a surge
My Music: http://www.suchasurge.de
October 20th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Isn’t, um, Napster the Napster of 2000? Considering it was up and running in 2000?
Wouldn’t this be the Napster of 2006?
October 20th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
[…] Original Link: Turn Google into Napster Use google to find mp3s (tags: Google hack mp3) […]
October 20th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Oh and you guys win the prize. My entire office is shitting their pants laughing at your about section, and my office is 100+ people.
You two are a new web sensation!!!
© 2006 Marc and Angel. Powered by Love… LOL!
October 22nd, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Google gives us everything we need.
That search string is great.
Now combine it with Google’s online mp3 player:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-mp3-player-found-in-gmail.html
…and you got an online self-contained mp3 player.
or better yet:
http://del.icio.us/help/playtagger
October 25th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
I’ve been doing a similar google hack for over a year.
October 29th, 2006 at 1:31 am
[…] By now, many of you have probably learned how to use Google’s advanced search features, and some of you may even be able to create custom search strings to find any kind of data you want. If you’re not sure what I mean about custom search strings, then you can check out this blog post which explains it pretty effectively. While you could use these custom search strings to find a particular file, you may not want to type them out in a search box or even bother remembering how to create them. No problem! Why not use Briefli? Briefli lets you create custom search strings visually by entering a search term, and then selecting a file type and file extension. Briefli will then query Google and you’ll be able to reach the deepest bowels of the Internet to find whatever your heart desires. You may also be interested in reading: […]
November 1st, 2006 at 8:28 am
[…] By now, many of you have probably learned how to use Google’s advanced search features, and some of you may even be able to create custom search strings to find any kind of data you want. If you’re not sure what I mean about custom search strings, then you can check out this blog post which explains it pretty effectively. While you could use these custom search strings to find a particular file, you may not want to type them out in a search box or even bother remembering how to create them. No problem! Why not use Briefli? Briefli lets you create custom search strings visually by entering a search term, and then selecting a file type and file extension. Briefli will then query Google and you’ll be able to reach the deepest bowels of the Internet to find whatever your heart desires. […]
November 5th, 2006 at 12:24 am
[…] I’ve made my quicksearch bookmarks for learners file, which includes Marc and Angel’s google media-specific searches, available to download. To import the bookmarks: […]
November 10th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
[…] There’s a lot you can do with Google if you can take advantage of it’s advanced search features. Expanding on this tip which shows you how to find music in open directories, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough on how to use Firefox Smart Keyword searches to speed up the process. 1. Create a bookmark in Firefox 2. Use the URLs in this text file as the bookmark location in your Firefox bookmarks (like in the pic above) 3. Assign a keyword to it - eg. music 4. Type the keyword (eg. music) followed by the search term (eg. beatles) directly into the address bar (NOT the search box). For example… type in music beatles , and Google will search open directories for Beatles music files that you can download. […]
December 1st, 2006 at 9:33 am
Thanks for useful info!!!
December 23rd, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Hi I would like to use this with permission in the next issue of my magazine which is released in February.
Response from Marc: As long as you reference our website name and URL as the source of the information, we don’t mind if you use our content.
December 23rd, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Thanks a million for this info.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Thanks, great post you guys!
January 28th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Hi, I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that you have a really interesting blog
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day
March 20th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Hello folks. I want to all of you know, the world is mine. Oh, and your site good. Great Google hack! Greetz from Russia.
Bye.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:56 am
This is mini but helpful Tips for to search with google Advance search facility:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=170880&seqNum=2&rl=1
July 9th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
@Brijesh:
Thanks for the tip on that Google Hacking article. Not bad…
July 10th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Huuuv nice choice of George Orwell - 1984 for the Google PDF search.
Superb book
July 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
@Leoman:
1984 is one of my favorite books of all time… no doubt about it!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Figured I’d let you know that I have visited your site 755 times to use this article. Cheers.
July 20th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Papaiti is my favorite by far.
July 29th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Muy excelente!!!
August 13th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
[…] If you want a better explaination of how this magics works, you can check out some sites like this or this. […]
September 17th, 2007 at 5:56 am
[…] Marc and Angel: Turn Google into Napster 2000 […]
December 15th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
[…] uses an old Google trick and some JavaScript to search for MP3s and WMAs with your specified keywords in open directories […]
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 am
I use to you g2p.org but found http://mp3frenzy.net much better for finding full albums. It’s good for searching for music posted on blogspot and file hosting sites.
April 17th, 2011 at 2:52 am
If seems both of us are big fans of music. Come see my site hope you like it!
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