Wildcards available?

widget* for widgets and widgets-world

[ThomasB]

Does anybody know if you can use wildcards like * or % use at Google? It didn't work for me.

Looking for a person but I don't know the exact lastname ;)

[ThomasB]

no ideas? :(

[seofreak]

search for some terms and see .. i only see very marginal difference.

[jimbeetle]

Google doesn't support wildcard searches. Inserting any special character, such as *, into a word simply acts as a blank space, signalling a word break.

Try widgets and wid*ets.

But you can be fooled into thinking that G supports wildcards for full words: blue fuzzy widgets versus blue * widgets. This is just a function of its common words filter. Blue * widgets returns the same results as blue it widgets, blue of widgets, blue it widgets, etc.

[sem4u]

I have tried it and it doesn't seem to work.

[doc_z]

* is indeed a placeholder (for an arbitary word). It is useful when searching for exact phrases, i.e. using quotation marks ("green * widgets").

Therefore, a * doesn't act as a blank space. Blue * widgets returns the same results as blue it widgets, but not as blue widgets.

[ILLstyle]

Does the ~ work?

[doc_z]

" ~" Searches

You may want to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. Indicate a search for both by placing the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of the keyword.

For example, to search for food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information, use: ~food ~facts

[Chndru]

Also dont forget, it supports wild cards like these.
"good * cars" (with and without quotes). Like this [google.com].

added: Ahh..it had been mentioned..just read the first post and jumped on it

[ThomasB]

Thanks for your replies!

It looks like there's no solution for the problem at Google.

If anybody has an idea of how to find widgetsa and widgetsb with 1 search term in any SE, feel free to sticky me. Actually, I want to lookup a person where I don't know the exact name. But online phone books didn't help so far

[Hagstrom]

Actually, I want to lookup a person where I don't know the exact name.

Why not use AltaV!sta (for this one time ;) ). They support wild cards.

[vitaplease]

I agree Thomas it would make Google better

[webmasterworld.com...]

[ThomasB]

Why don't they integrate it? Any comments at SES or by GoogleGuy?

I think it consumes less power than calculating toolbar PR and the resulting automated queries. But please don't remove toolbar PR :)

OT: I also didn't find her at AV, maybe I should go away from the computer and look for her in the real world - though it's very cold outside these days ;)