Comments on: Google search tip: wildcard word (*)

By: Matt Brubeck

Matt Brubeck — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

“* eye for the * guy” turns up great hits like “Black eye for the white guy”:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22*%20eye%20for%20the%20*%20guy%22

By: Jesse Ruderman

Jesse Ruderman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I just searched for “* is like * on crack”, and the first hit was a blog entry by my friend Erika Rice!

By: Elandrael

Elandrael — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I went to calculator mode and found this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=18*10&btnG=Google+Search

All seem normal but when you use

�Search for documents containing the terms 18*10.�

You can see a “+” before the query. Going deeper, I assumed that I could do some mathematical calculi with “-” and “+”. In fact it�s bugged.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=-18*10&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%2B18*10

If you change directly the “-” by the “+” on the url it work making “+” a space.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=+18*10&btnG=Google+Search

Even with parenthesis it�s bugged.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%28%2B18%29+*+%28-10%29&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%28-18%29+*+%28%2B10%29&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%2818%29+*+%2810%29&btnG=Google+Search

Same result if you change the url directly.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%28-18%29+*+%28-10%29&btnG=Google+Search

P.S: Sorry about my English, in fact I m French, so this post might contain mistakes.

By: Jesse Ruderman

Jesse Ruderman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Elandrael, I’m not sure what you think is a bug. Is it that “+5″ makes you leave calculator mode, but you expect it to be the same as “5″?

By: Tech-Weblog by Christoph C. Cemper

Tech-Weblog by Christoph C. Cemper — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Google Wildcard Word

Jesse Ruderman just taught me something new: Google uses "*" as a wildcard meaning "any word", so searching for christoph * house could result in Christoph IN THE house Christoph OWNS A house Christoph Cemper’s house I have to exper…

By: technofodder for the masses

technofodder for the masses — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

assorted sweets #21

Fun royalty-free stock illustrations More fun royalty-free stock illustrations Google search takes wildcards… cool The Shrine of Villainy Return to your geeky science class roots Talk about travelling on a dime Attention all office slackers… er, w…