Fwd: [Web4lib] Why use the plus symbol before search terms when googling?

[Jeremy Dunck]

Missed the reply-all; sorry.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jeremy Dunck <jdunck at gmail.com>
Date: Sep 7, 2005 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Why use the plus symbol before search terms
when googling?
To: Mark Bardsley <bardsley at u.washington.edu>


On 9/7/05, Mark Bardsley <bardsley at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> Jeremy,
>
> What is the difference between searching with "~running" and running? Does
> Google not stem unquoted words?
>

Sorry, the quotes were just used as meant as delimiters, so:
~running
versus
running

The search for
running
returns results that have the exact word, while the search for
~running
returns stem results as well: run, runner, runs, etc.  It's the tilde
that changes the operation.

Quotes are just useful when searching for an exact phrase.
"this is a test"
is different than
this is a test
.

And for one last hurrah,
"this * * happening"
will match any phrase which begins with
this
has two words in between, and ends with
happening
.

So, it'll match
this can't be happening
but it will not match
this can not be happening
.