6 ms·

I'm not knowledgeable about Bing, but Google doesn't support literal searches either if you mean that in the sense of exact string matching.

by lmmlzxx 10y ago

thoman23 10y ago
Of course Google supports exact string matching. Just put your term in double quotes.
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  Mind you, it's overloaded now; double quotes also mean "this term must appear in the results." Used to be that prefixing with + meant that, but they killed that function so they could use it for Google Plus. You used to be able to search for, say, "annie oakley" "wild bill hickok" and find pages with either or both of those complete phrases; now there's no obvious way to do that. Many years ago, IIRC, Google Search also supported boolean AND/OR, but that was also removed, for no obvious reason.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Probably because it produces confusing effects when people type in full sentences.
    - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
      That wouldn't prevent them from denoting booleans with special characters (which they already do with other functions--see https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en), or having some kind of "advanced" interface. As far as I've been able to tell, boolean searches have been entirely removed from Google's public-facing search. There was no need to do that.
- PudgePacket 10y ago
  It feels like they haven't for a while, eg this http://i.imgur.com/zEDt5tD.png http://i.imgur.com/zEDt5tD.png
  - lmmlzxx 10y ago
    People have had this misconception for a long time about Google, I remember having this debate on HN 4 or 5 years ago. I'm not sure Google has ever supported truly exact string matching.
  - flukus 10y ago
    It still prioritizes exact string matches I think.
- phtevus 10y ago
  Nope - that does not do what you think it does.
gman99 10y ago
If you append &tbs=li to the end of the query URL, google does a literal search. If you want it as a default, add it to your browser as a search engine plugin: http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=google+verbatim http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=google+ve... Or: Search tools → All results → Verbatim
- lmmlzxx 10y ago
  I am trying this right now, and it's not doing exact string matching. I mean case sensitive, special characters, etc. To the poster below, putting the query in double quotes definitely does not do exact string matching.
aneidon 10y ago
It does. It's called verbatim mode, if I recall correctly. Edit: verbatim not verbose

I'm not knowledgeable about Bing, but Google doesn't support literal searches either if you mean that in the sense of exact string matching.

by lmmlzxx 10y ago

I'm not knowledgeable about Bing, but Google doesn't support literal searches either if you mean that in the sense of exact string matching.

thoman23 10y ago

Of course Google supports exact string matching. Just put your term in double quotes.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
Mind you, it's overloaded now; double quotes also mean "this term must appear in the results." Used to be that prefixing with + meant that, but they killed that function so they could use it for Google Plus. You used to be able to search for, say, "annie oakley" "wild bill hickok" and find pages with either or both of those complete phrases; now there's no obvious way to do that. Many years ago, IIRC, Google Search also supported boolean AND/OR, but that was also removed, for no obvious reason.
- majewsky 10y ago
  Probably because it produces confusing effects when people type in full sentences.
  - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
    That wouldn't prevent them from denoting booleans with special characters (which they already do with other functions--see https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en), or having some kind of "advanced" interface. As far as I've been able to tell, boolean searches have been entirely removed from Google's public-facing search. There was no need to do that.
PudgePacket 10y ago
It feels like they haven't for a while, eg this http://i.imgur.com/zEDt5tD.png http://i.imgur.com/zEDt5tD.png
- lmmlzxx 10y ago
  People have had this misconception for a long time about Google, I remember having this debate on HN 4 or 5 years ago. I'm not sure Google has ever supported truly exact string matching.
- flukus 10y ago
  It still prioritizes exact string matches I think.
phtevus 10y ago
Nope - that does not do what you think it does.

gman99 10y ago

If you append &tbs=li to the end of the query URL, google does a literal search. If you want it as a default, add it to your browser as a search engine plugin: http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=google+verbatim http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=google+ve... Or: Search tools → All results → Verbatim

lmmlzxx 10y ago
I am trying this right now, and it's not doing exact string matching. I mean case sensitive, special characters, etc. To the poster below, putting the query in double quotes definitely does not do exact string matching.

aneidon 10y ago

It does. It's called verbatim mode, if I recall correctly. Edit: verbatim not verbose