Proximity search in Google
Posted by Celia Walter | 11 Jan, 2011Can't do it, can we? Well, now we can. This is a function that's been around for... (this pause in important, just to drag home the enormity of what I'm about to say) five or six YEARS according to one blog. It's an undocumented feature apparently. We've had a work around (that we clearly haven't actually needed) by using the asterisk symbol such as three * mice for a single word between two others, or three ** mice for up to two words between two others and so on. However, we can use the proximity search operator AROUND(x) to work more effectively. You have to put around in capitals to ensure that Google knows you want to do a proximity search, then add in the brackets with a number in there. Why Google has decided to use 'around' as a proximity term is a bit odd - most sensible resources would use something like NEAR instead, but that's Google for you.
Click on Link to see how it works: http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2011/01/proximity-search-in-google.html