# Skipping to Google Results

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837 "2008-11-15T08:58:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/1 "2008-11-15T08:58:33Z")

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I thought I knew how to use Google. Ok, say I do a search and I get 10000 results. Google allows me to go to page 10 but no further. Wanna see result #6000? Better have the next half hour free. Is there a good reason there isn’t a ‘goto page’ option, like there is in probably 99% of various searches on the net? Or is there an easy way to do this after all? I guess a good example would be a google usenet search, say someone wanted to find the first example of the word ‘boat’ appearing on usenet. so they set it to sort by date, then, how to go to last page of results? And if you can’t, why the heck not?

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**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/2 "2008-11-15T09:32:38Z")

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Until they code it in themselves, you can do it through the address bar. There’s a place on the address bar that says start=0. When you go to page 2, it becomes 10 and on page 3 it’s 20. You can just change that number to whatever you want, and it will list those numbered results, starting with the number after the one you typed. For example, typing 393 will display starting at the 394th result.

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**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/3 "2008-11-15T09:34:35Z")

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> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#):
>
> Until they code it in themselves, you can do it through the address bar. There’s a place on the address bar that says start=0. When you go to page 2, it becomes 10 and on page 3 it’s 20. You can just change that number to whatever you want, and it will list those numbered results, starting with the number after the one you typed. For example, typing 393 will display starting at the 394th result.

Dang, a GQ I actually had a good answer to and I was beat to it by mere minutes, in the off-peak hours no less. ☹

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**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/4 "2008-11-15T10:02:32Z")

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Yep, that’s pretty much what I was thinking-- Why has no one posted this answer??

Gotta get up pretty early to get up before Japan 😃

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**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/5 "2008-11-15T16:15:43Z")

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Why do you want to see result 6000? If the first few pages of results aren’t doing it for you, almost certainly the 600th page won’t either. Your time would be better spent in refining your search.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/6 "2008-11-15T16:34:48Z")

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> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#):
>
> Until they code it in themselves, you can do it through the address bar. There’s a place on the address bar that says start=0. When you go to page 2, it becomes 10 and on page 3 it’s 20. You can just change that number to whatever you want, and it will list those numbered results, starting with the number after the one you typed. For example, typing 393 will display starting at the 394th result.

This doesn’t actually work for results after #1000, which is what the OP needs ☹ Google just returns this error message:

> [@](#):
>
> Sorry, Google does not serve more than 1000 results for any query. (You asked for results starting from 901.)

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/7 "2008-11-15T16:42:17Z")

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(Was past edit timeframe)

OP: I don’t think you can jump past page 10, but you can limit your query to a certain timeframe using Google Group’s [Advanced Search](http://groups.google.com/advanced_search). If you limit your search to between 1981 and 1982, you should be able to find the first instance of “boat” at the bottom pretty easily?

As for why Google does this, I can only offer a guess… maybe it has to do with performance reasons? Google’s search, in general, seems to be tailored towards returning the most useful results for **popular** queries, as opposed to giving you maximum control over your query. For example, it doesn’t support wildcards in search, opting for their stemming and synonyms technology to give you similar, commonly-searched terms.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skipping-to-google-results/472837/8 "2008-11-15T16:59:43Z")

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Ugh, I should clarify something… I forgot I had Google automatically set to return 100 results per page. You can definitely go past page 10 if you have fewer results per page; you just can’t go beyond result #1000.

Sorry for the triple post.
