Lesson 11: Discovering Additional Information & Online Accounts Using Bing
Different search engines can reveal unique results. Information available on Bing may not appear on Google or Yandex, and Bing offers some exclusive search operators (covered in this and the next lecture).
Basic Search on Bing
Start with a simple quoted search:
"rishi cabra"
This returned approximately 59,000 results. Scrolling through:
- Profile images section led to a SoundCloud account (created/appeared around 2017).
- Account details: Name confirmed, location India (specifically Hyderabad mentioned), later associated with Kolkata.
- Linked social profiles included LinkedIn and Facebook (already known), plus an Instagram account with the same username as GitHub.
- The Instagram page is no longer available, but the URL is still valuable to note (consistent username pattern).
Add these new accounts (SoundCloud and former Instagram) to your notes alongside previously found profiles.
Refining with Location Keywords
Since the target is known to live in Kolkata:
"rishi cabra" kolkata
This narrows results (fewer than without the keyword, but still useful). New findings include:
- Documents and pages not seen on Google.
- Additional mentions on various sites.
Excluding Unwanted Domains
To filter out irrelevant or noisy sites (e.g., one domain dominating results):
"rishi cabra" -site:example-domain.com
This removes that domain and often surfaces more diverse/relevant results. Tip: Start with Google for broad searches, then move to Bing/Yandex for additional info.
Cached Pages on Bing
Bing often caches pages. Look for the three-dot menu next to a result → Cached.
Example: A cached page from February 25, 2024, showed a Kolkata-based web developer account (possibly the target or a different person with the same name).
Tip: If a page is not cached on Google, copy its URL or title and search on Bing/Yandex — they may have a saved version.
Bing Exclusive Operator: loc:
The loc: operator limits results to a specific country/region (very useful for geographically focused searches).
Example for India:
"rishi cabra" loc:IN
Results are restricted to Indian sites (many with .in TLD). This can reveal local reviews, directories, restaurants, or other region-specific mentions.
(See lecture resources for supported country codes.)
Bing Language Operator
Restrict results to a specific language using language codes.
Example (English):
"rishi cabra" language:en
Realistic example (German, for someone in Germany):
"sad sarraj" language:de
This returned results with descriptions primarily in German (LinkedIn may remain in original language, but surrounding content adapts).
Use these Bing-specific features to uncover accounts, cached content, and geographically/linguistically targeted information that other engines might miss.