Inserting an asterix * between words in Google Search, returns a sequence of words between the key words.


The Google Help Centre has information related to Google Wild Card Search.

“A wildcard in a Google search query can be indicated by an asterisk and will match one or more entire words of text so that the query matches a contiguous sequence of words”.

For example, a search for [marketing * money] will match the phrases “Marketing and innovation make money” and “Marketing Best Practices Make Money”.

One common use of the asterisk is to fill in the blanks for a query that corresponds to a question: [marketing was launched by *]. Also, more than one asterisk can be used, such as [marketing * was launched by *].

This search query will get results like, “marketing campaign was launched by the Tourism” and “marketing campaign. Juice was launched by Terraplanet”.

According to Google Help Centre, “Currently, Google doesn’t support searches in which an asterisk indicates a fraction or extension of a word: [flower * classes] will not match “flowerful classes”.

However, we do use stemming technology. When appropriate, Google will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for [pet lemur dietary needs], Google will also search for [pet lemur diet needs] and other related variations of your terms”.

To learn more about refining basic search techniques click here.

To learn more about advanced search techniques click here.

 

 

 

 

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