5 ms·

I work for Google Search. We have looked at this, and while never say never, reverting is hard from what I understand because it means we'd have to ignore the +

I work for Google Search. We have looked at this, and while never say never, reverting is hard from what I understand because it means we'd have to ignore the + symbol which turns out to be useful to recognize when it comes to international phone number searches.

breakingcups 4y ago
That seems like it is easy to special-case though.
- dannysullivan 4y ago
  Not so easy, the engineers tell me. Again, never say never. I miss + myself, but quotes do work.
deleted 4y ago
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chimprich 4y ago
That seems like quite the edge case. I don't think I've ever searched for an international phone number. Is that worth making the search experience rather poorer for everyone? Besides: if you're searching for a phone number, you presumably are looking for an exact match, so how is treating it as such a problem?
- CuriousCosmic 4y ago
  Are you by chance in North America? I suspect this is a much more common edge case in Europe where you have a bunch of countries within close proximity to each other.
  - chimprich 4y ago
    I live in the UK and travel regularly in Europe. I've very rarely Googled a phone number. The only times I can think of is when I've had an unknown number call me and I want to try to figure out who it was. (Of course, doing it the reverse way, Googling an org's name to find their phone number, is common). I'm suddenly curious as to why anyone would search for phone numbers regularly.
spacebanana7 4y ago
The + symbol also gets used in credible search terms like Disney+, Apple TV+, math equations, C++, code snippets (x += 1), indicators of age (e.g 2000+ year old pyramid) etc. I suppose many of these could be addressed by ignoring the + at the end of a word, but that weakens the robustness to user error in correct spacing.
- falcor84 4y ago
  I thought the + operator only ever worked as the first character of a word
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    Or if it doesn't, than make it so. And tell people that if they want to search for a word that begins with a symbol, put it in quotes. That doesn't seem difficult.
modeless 4y ago
Thanks! I figured there was a reason something like this. But I have to say it seems like an eminently solvable problem.

breakingcups 4y ago

That seems like it is easy to special-case though.

dannysullivan 4y ago
Not so easy, the engineers tell me. Again, never say never. I miss + myself, but quotes do work.

deleted 4y ago

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chimprich 4y ago

That seems like quite the edge case. I don't think I've ever searched for an international phone number. Is that worth making the search experience rather poorer for everyone? Besides: if you're searching for a phone number, you presumably are looking for an exact match, so how is treating it as such a problem?

CuriousCosmic 4y ago
Are you by chance in North America? I suspect this is a much more common edge case in Europe where you have a bunch of countries within close proximity to each other.
- chimprich 4y ago
  I live in the UK and travel regularly in Europe. I've very rarely Googled a phone number. The only times I can think of is when I've had an unknown number call me and I want to try to figure out who it was. (Of course, doing it the reverse way, Googling an org's name to find their phone number, is common). I'm suddenly curious as to why anyone would search for phone numbers regularly.

spacebanana7 4y ago

The + symbol also gets used in credible search terms like Disney+, Apple TV+, math equations, C++, code snippets (x += 1), indicators of age (e.g 2000+ year old pyramid) etc. I suppose many of these could be addressed by ignoring the + at the end of a word, but that weakens the robustness to user error in correct spacing.

falcor84 4y ago
I thought the + operator only ever worked as the first character of a word
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Or if it doesn't, than make it so. And tell people that if they want to search for a word that begins with a symbol, put it in quotes. That doesn't seem difficult.

modeless 4y ago

Thanks! I figured there was a reason something like this. But I have to say it seems like an eminently solvable problem.