Not always. Since a year or two, I'm seeing they take into account many special characters: https://www.google.com/search?q= https://www.google.com/search?q=.

Not always. Since a year or two, I'm seeing they take into account many special characters: https://www.google.com/search?q= https://www.google.com/search?q=. https://www.google.com/search?q=.bz2 https://www.google.com/search?q=.bz2 and https://www.google.com/search?q=bz2 https://www.google.com/search?q=bz2 are different, for instance.