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photo by Ehsan Shafiei

September 9, 2026

Getting Started with OSINT: My First Steps with Google Dorking

I wanted to write about OSINT for a while, but I never really had enough time to organize it and share it properly.

By Ehsan shafiei

2 min read

Today I finally got the chance, so I decided to write a short introduction about it.

So, what is OSINT?

OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) is basically any information that is publicly available on the internet and can be used as an intelligence source.

It can be websites, social media, documents, public databases, forums, or anything else that is accessible online.

The interesting part is that the internet already contains a huge amount of information. The challenge is not always finding information — it is finding the right information.

In my opinion, having at least a basic understanding of OSINT is something everyone should learn today.

The first step: Google Dorking

When people think about OSINT tools, they usually imagine complicated tools and platforms.

But one of the simplest and most useful places to start is something we use every day:

Google.

Google has several search operators that help us search more accurately and find information faster.

Let's look at some basic ones.

1. Exact Search with " "

The first and simplest operator is using double quotes.

If you put a phrase inside quotation marks, Google searches for that exact phrase.

Example:

"Artificial Intelligence"

Instead of searching for the two words separately, Google looks for pages where this exact phrase appears.

This is useful when you are looking for:

  • A specific sentence
  • A person's name
  • A document title
  • A unique phrase

2. OR Operator

Sometimes you want to search for different terms that mean almost the same thing.

For example:

"AI" OR "Artificial Intelligence"

This tells Google to search for either "AI" or "Artificial Intelligence".

This is useful because different websites may use different words for the same topic.

3. AND Operator

The AND operator helps when you want results containing multiple topics.

Example:

AI AND Cyber Security

Now Google will focus on pages related to both AI and Cyber Security.

4. Removing Results with -

Sometimes you want to remove unwanted results.

For example:

AI -course

This will show AI-related results but remove pages that include the word "course".

A simple trick, but very useful when your search results are too broad.

5. Searching Inside a Specific Website

The site: operator is one of my favorites.

Example:

site:medium.com OSINT

This limits the search results only to Medium.

You can use it when you want to search inside a specific website instead of the whole internet.

For example:

site:github.com security tools

or

site:linkedin.com cybersecurity

Final Thoughts

This is just the beginning of OSINT.

You don't always need advanced tools to start. Sometimes knowing how to search properly can make a huge difference.

Google Dorking is one of the first things I learned about OSINT, and I think it is a good starting point for anyone interested in cybersecurity, research, or simply finding better information online.

I will share more about OSINT techniques and tools in future posts.