Resources/Glossary/Recruiting
X ray search is using Google's site: operator to search inside another website, for example site:linkedin.com/in with job titles and skills, to find public profiles. Recruiters use it to reach pages the site's own search hides, limits or charges for.
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Using Google's site: operator to search inside another website, for example site:linkedin.com/in with job titles, to find public profiles.
A basic X ray string has three parts: the site you want to search, the words that must appear and words to exclude. For example: site:linkedin.com/in “data engineer” (Snowflake OR dbt) Denver -jobs. Google returns pages from that site that match. The same method works on GitHub, Stack Overflow, Behance, Dribbble, association member pages and conference speaker lists.
Results depend on what the site lets Google index, which can change without notice. Google also limits complex queries and does not support every Boolean operator in the same way as an ATS or a recruiting platform. Expect to test and adjust strings, and use the exact phrase quotes, OR in capital letters and the minus sign for exclusions.
X ray search is free and reaches profiles you might not find through a paid seat's built in search. It is especially useful for niche skills, people who are active on technical or creative sites, and quick market checks before a client call. It also teaches the Boolean thinking every sourcer needs for AI and database search.
Finding a bilingual payroll specialist in Phoenix is the task for an agency recruiter. Searching the network's own tool returns few results on her basic plan. She runs site:linkedin.com/in payroll (Spanish OR bilingual) Phoenix -jobs on Google and gets 70 public profiles. After reviewing them she has 18 good fits and reaches them by email and InMail.
A few of the sourcing tools in our directory. Prices are the published starting price on the date we last checked.
Searching public pages on Google is generally legal, but what you do next is regulated. Contacting people is covered by laws like CAN SPAM in the US and GDPR in Europe, and automated scraping can breach a site's terms. This is not legal advice.
It works for public profiles that LinkedIn allows Google to index, though the results are less complete than a paid search seat and can change over time. Pair it with other sources rather than relying on it alone.
Boolean search is the logic: AND, OR, NOT, quotes and brackets. X ray search is one way to use that logic, running it in Google with the site: operator to look inside a specific website. Most X ray strings are Boolean strings with a site: prefix.
Written by recruiters at Work Insiders. Part of the recruiting and HR tech glossary. Updated October 2026.
