This isn't a trick, it's just using google the way it was programmed to be used. Those are documented features of the google search engine, they are no "hacks".
This is a trick insofar as most of the people don't know it. There are no obvious links to any kind of Google Search manual, and those features are not clearly advertised anywhere, so they can be treated like tricks of "those in the know".
There are many meanings to word hack, and while some uses are more stretched than others, this one isn't that bad. Want to pick on something really meaningless? Try "growth hacking".
BTW. Creative uses of those features are actually called "google dorks" and are collected in a database[0].
It's all in the CPU instruction set, after all. It's all documented. Everyone should just read the manual.
Right?
You remind me of my 12 year old son. He also fetches the most ridiculous notions from who knows where to justify some of the silly things he does and says.