Another new google message?

"By default, Google searches for variations of your search terms."

[DerekH]

Some days I use google and it's like an old friend.
Some days, it's like they look different... have they had their hair coloured, or a nose job, or have they taken their glasses off?

This morning I set myself up for the usual disappointment of checking out my site by typing
link:www.wish-i-had-more-backlinks.com

And under the blue "Searched for pages linking to www....."
there was a white entry...
"By default, Google searches for variations of your search terms. To search only for an exact term, place a '+' sign before it."

Variations?
Is this something new, or hasn't my morning coffee kicked in yet?

And yes, it vanished next time I looked...
And no, I didn't have any more links when the message was there...
DerekH

[takagi]

I started to see it a few days ago, but only if all the following 3 conditions are met:
1. number of results is set to more than 10 (go to preferences or add something like '&num=100' at the end of the URL of the SERP)
2. the search is for backlinks ('link:www.domain.com')
3. there are enough results (limit is somewhere between 8 and 15 results)

You can see it here [google.com]. Change the '&num=11' to 'num=10' and the message is gone.

The strange thing is, the message is not translated in other languages as the other tips (cf. Google Tips [webmasterworld.com]) like in the following 3 examples.

Searching on www.google.com for 'The USA' shows:
"The" is a very common word and was not included in your search.

Searching on www.google.de for 'in Deutschland [google.de]' shows:
"in" ist ein sehr häufiges Wort und wurde in der Suchanfrage ignoriert.

Searching on www.google.fr for 'La France [google.fr]' shows:
"La" étant un mot très courant, il a été ignoré lors de cette recherche.

[edited by: takagi at 9:43 am (utc) on Oct. 4, 2003]

[DerekH]

takagi...
Nice analysis - thank you!
DerekH

[dirkz]

Very weird to see this in a backlink search. Maybe a developer accidentally destroyed some #ifdefs in development code :)

[takagi]

The message appears on the same line in the SERPs as

Try Google Answers to get help from expert researchers.

which sometimes is shown for a search result with at least one but less than 10 results. That one only appears on www.google.com site and not on a German or French Google site.