The Fastest way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web
Finding High Quality free files on the internet is every designers daily dilemma. Sometimes you don’t have the time to make your own swooshes, or seamless paisley background image. This is why we search, and from my experience, the search can be brutal. There is a lot of crap out there, and sifting through all of the 1990’s “clip art” makes me want to blow chunks sometimes. I have, however, found a way to bypass a lot of the “junk” and get right to the good stuff, relatively speaking. At the very least, call it a freebie search tip.
As you all probably know, adding the word “free” to a Google search can increase your crappy results exponentially. This sucks when all you want to find is a free button, badge, pattern, or anything else that you’re looking for. Nothing out of the ordinary, just quick and free. It doesn’t need to be this hard, and it shouldn’t be because there are plenty of sites out there willing to share free designs but don’t necessarily rank well on Google. This is where we take advantage of both Google, and the social media sites in order to get instant highly relevant results, and quick access to freebies. It’s like using every social bookmarking site at once. Here’s how it works. . .
Thanks to site’s like Digg, Del.icio.us, Slashdot, Reddit, etc. which rely on users submitting the best content from around the web, there exists an easy way to find the best of the best using a quick Google search trick. I’m not saying it never happens, but most of the urls submitted to these popular social bookmarking sites are better than average, when it comes to freebies.
It differs from site to site depending on robot behavior, but Google indexes these pages on the social media sites. Why does this matter? Because we can use Google to search ONLY the sites we choose for links containing certain keywords, or “search terms,” just like a normal Google query, giving us keyword results for “freebies” (or vector, or PSD, or whatever) from the best submitted urls on the most popular sites on the web.
How it works:
Google provides us with a list of “operators” that can restrict your search results by a given criteria. You can type these operators before any search from any google search bar, even your browser. The one we well be using is “site:”
To find freebies fast, all you have to do is restrict your Google search to the best sites that are known for housing links to good stuff. This way we can use Google to retrieve a list, instead of having to browse those sites ourselves. Go to a Google page or search bar somewhere and type “site:digg.com” -space- “free icons.” So it looks like this:
Now hit enter to get your results. Google only gives you results from that site, in this case, Digg. This technique probably works the best with Digg because Digg allows each of its story pages to be indexed by Google. On other sites, Google might give you a page that has all post with a “tag” that matches your search terms. Either way, you are getting to some pretty good links, really fast.
Another reason this works is the fact that even if you don’t get directly to the source from the Google results, chances are you will stumble upon a blog entry with a collection of links to freebies, like thisTutorialBlog entry, or this SmashingMagazine entry. Sites like these are getting famous for collecting links to good stuff, and usually get submitted to sites like Del.icio.us, Digg, and Slashdot, etc. on a regular basis.
Take a few seconds and try a site: search on Google with a popular social media site, and see what you can come up with. I hope you find what you are looking for!
Here is a list of a few big social bookmarking/media sites to search:
- site:digg.com
- site:del.icio.us
- site:slashdot.com
- site:reddit.com
- site:stumbleupon.com
- site:netscape.com
- site:clipmarks.com
Some big blogging networks:
- site:blogmarks.com
- site:technorati.com
- site:bloglines.com
- site:mybloglog.com
You might even think about trying to search some of the biggest/best/your favorite blogs themselves (iI tend to like the tech stuff), if you have your topic narrowed a bit:
- site:lifehacker.com
- site:boingboing.net
Update: The Google Co-op Social Media Search Engine:
Created by illovich, or you can go to this page and bookmark it. Try a search for a freebie that you want to find and see what you get by only searching the biggest social media sites. (Thanks to Illovich) Or you can get the code and put it in your blog like I have here. (click on “Social Media Search”)
Awesome awesome awesome. This is will help me a lot, thanks. I have been doing this for years with little luck, hopefully I can finally find something worthwhile now.
Btw, new to your blog since last night and I must say I am very grateful for it and wish like mad I had had its resource when I started learning design. I found it while looking for free vector graphics on google. Keep up the awesome work and please continue to update.
I already have a request for an entry. Could you please in the sometime near future show and explain to us your design favorite sites? Resources, inspiration, collegues, whatever. Just think about it is all I ask. Unless you’ve already done this and I’ve missed it, of course. XD
Agreed, great post.
Very Web 2.0 to mash up Google search with social media as a quality filter.
Sometimes I also find that freebies labeled as “creative commons” are of much higher quality than your generic run-of-the-mill freebies. Then again such technical licenses seriously narrow the results.
Fastest way to find high-quality freebies? Go to http://Bittbox.com and click the “Freebies-Button” in the topright corner of the page… :)
Thanks for your stuff!
Nothing new, but what the heck, I’ll give you a digg anyway. ;-)
This was a great insight. So great, I made this social media search engine using Google co-op. It works the same as Google, except it searches all of the sites you mentioned (plus a couple I added) at once, and doesn’t search any others.
Let me know if you find it useful.
The problem is that it only works for digital content, don’t expect to find high quality samples or anything.
[...] way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web (Google Search Trick) Fastest way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web (Google Search Trick) Adding the word ?free? to a Google search can increase your crappy results exponentially. Take [...]
@illovich
Awesome! I bookmarked it. Is that something that will be up for a long time? I’ll probably use it often.
~BittBox
Another trick I use when searching for stuff is to use Google’s blog search tool at: http://blogsearch.google.com/
I’ve found that the stuff people post to from their blog tends to be higher quality than what can be found on random websites returned by Google’s normal search results. There are the occasional spam blogs, but thankfully they are more rare, and the usually have enough obviously spammy text that you can tell from the search summary itself, before even clicking on its link.
I don’t see any reason to delete it, so it will probably exist until I lose my google account, or they get rid of the coop program.
I added some web design sites as well… here’s the full list (this search engine only returns results from the sites listed below–let me know if you can think of other good ones to add)
9rules.com
fiftyfoureleven.com
oculture.com
netmag.co.uk
snook.ca/jonathan/
petefreitag.com
simplebits.com
smashingmagazine.com
typeforyou.blogspot.com
photoshoplab.com
digg.com
del.icio.us
slashdot.com
reddit.com
stumbleupon.com
netscape.com
clipmarks.com
blogmarks.com
technorati.com
bloglines.com
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Or … You could just use the “search” option on digg
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You could also check out GiveawayProject.com. This new blog features giveaways and freebies that have no strings attached.
What about Freecycle? This is a different kind of free – but people have gotten cars and computers and other stuff.
Great trick! Thaks a lot!
to find freebie? I use the
free after rebate section at dealigg.com
they have a compiled list of freebies and updated everyday
[...] Cool search engine trick to finding freebies. [...]
[...] Finding High Quality free files on the internet is every designers daily dilemma. Sometimes you don?t have the time to make your own swooshes, or seamless paisley background image. This is why we search, and from my experience, the search can be brutal. There is a lot of crap out there, and sifting through all of the 1990?s ?clip art? makes me want to blow chunks sometimes. I have, however, found a way to bypass a lot of the ?junk? and get right to the good stuff, relatively speaking. At the very least, call it a freebie search tip.Read a full article [...]
[...] Finding High Quality free files on the internet is every designers daily dilemma. Sometimes you don’t have the time to make your own swooshes, or seamless paisley background image. This is why we search, and from my experience, the search can be brutal. There is a lot of crap out there, and sifting through all […] [via BittBox] [...]
nice ne for the write up on a site called 3hive now thanks to you listening to some quality unsigned bands gratis LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
very great idea. works perfect.
Thanks for the marketing advice for those of us producing original content out there… You gave me an idea Bittbox :)
Luc
[...] The importance of headlines when building web sites … But while I respect the needs of freebie seekers, what I really want to do on my site is sell my … continue… [...]
[...] very useful when I’m looking for new things for Photoshop. Recently, Bittbox also published a nice post on how to find good freebies and that’s just another good post to add to its freebie theme. Thank you Bittbox! Share [...]
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The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)
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[...] The Fastest way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web – Finding High Quality free files on the internet is every designers daily dilemma. Sometimes you don?t have the time to make your own swooshes, or seamless paisley background image. This is why we search, and from my experience, the search can be brutal. [...]
hi nice site.
did not now this…..glad i do now
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[...] also a good option for unearthing the stuff you might not have otherwise. — Wendy Boswell The Fastest way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web [...]
Great post!
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hi all.
Agreed, great post.
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That ‘generalization’ to find only good design worx via ’social bookmarking’ is one of the most retarded arguments i have heard for a long time.
Nothing personal and nothing to be offended of. It is just my opinion about the argument itself. Of course one can find sources via del.ico.us or digg, but i find rare diamonds of pretty cool and sometimes trend-setting stuff the good old way: Specialised and theme orientated forums.
For me that blogga-i-have-to-tell-the-worl-how-cool-i-am-able-to-use-photoshop isn’t the be-all and end-all or the last word on the subject….
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I couldn’t understand some parts of this article astest way to find High-Quality Freebies on the Web | BittBox, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
I just wanted to say this has been SUCH a good article, that is just genius!! it will defnitly save me oodles of time lol!! thanks very much for that! also, this is the first comment ive ever left on a website, this website has been a complete inspiration and help to me so just wanted to say a big thankyou!! :)
Thank you for the terrific post. I’m usually pretty good at hunting free content, but this will save a lot of time and effort.
90’s clip art be damned!
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Very useful tips you have here! Well done!
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hi all….
try http://www.free4photoshop.com
you oughta cut down on the advertising, it makes me angry and sad.
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thanks for sharing about this tips :)
This great stuff would be excellent if it was paired with OutWit Images. A firefox extension that makes image searches a pleasurable task, OutWit Images will automatically browse all the web results pages in an image search and show you the results on one single scrollable pretty page. Google images, picasa, flickr, getty images, jupiter images work with it so you can find that one special picture for your blog or site. Legal surfing only!
check it out yo: http://www.OutWit.com
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