Google abandoning the + operator: How to fix the problem.
Posted by Celia Walter | 31 Oct, 2011You could add a + in front of a search term in order to make sure that this word was present on all the pages listed in search results...
Now the birth of Google+ has made a mess of it all. Not only has Google been able to produce sensible results for the query Google+, now it seems the + sign used when referring to people over at Google+ has forced Google to abandon the + operator.
Not all is lost, though. To achieve the same effect, but the word in double quotation marks. That is right, “…” works in the same way as + used to:
“Google” “search engine marketing”
Exactly how you are going to include search engine marketing in the query, without making it an obligatory feature of the pages included in search results is unclear. Adding all the double quotation marks in stead of a single + is also cumbersome.
Google, please bring the + operator back! You are only causing confusion by doing this!
From Pandia
[Celia: Yes, indeed! I am very annoyed at losing the + operator.Thanks, Pandia, for a way around the change.]