I've been looking for a really good on googlefu, but all the ones I've found have been pretty useless (such as explaining the * operator). I have two basic questions:

1. What's the best guide you've found that explains advanced googling techniques?

2. How do I force google to include characters/sequences that they automatically strip? For example if you use the search term $HOME google strips the $ and you end up with a bunch of results about houses, home depot etc. I tried \$HOME, $$HOME, "\$HOME", "$HOME", "$$HOME" and all those are the same as searching for HOME.

Johnny.ihackstuff.com (site), "Google Hacking for Penetration Testers" (book) and Gnucitizen.org's GHDB (on-line tool) and a Firefox plugin (forgot name) might help?


IMHO increasing your search-fu shouldn't focus on escaping chars but making them relevant in a context. "${HOME}" isn't relevant as you've found, but (silly example) "site:securityfocus.co inurl:CVE2008032901 +ORACLE +HOME +listener -Gobbles" may be.