I'm guessing they was trying to make sense of my search query? That document seems to explain the search operators, so here's my logic behind the choice of oper

I'm guessing they was trying to make sense of my search query? That document seems to explain the search operators, so here's my logic behind the choice of operators: Why `NEAR2`? Maybe Steve is their middle name, so `NEAR` won't work as it only looks at bordering names. I don't necessarily know if the databases are going to present the names as `Lindsay, Steve` or `Steve Lindsay`, so `ADJ` (where order matters) isn't a good choice. Why `ste$5`? Maybe they didn't use `Steve` as their name on the application. Could be `Steven` or `Stephen`. That suggests `ste$4`. However, I've found that adding an extra letter can be more robust. Maybe the database has a typo like `Stephenn`, hence the extra letter.