Don't Want Google to "Correct" Your Searches? You Can Now Search Verbatim

Until earlier this year, you could do a Google search and use the ‘+’ operator in front of any word to make sure that Google would search for this specific term. Now that Google is moving towards using ‘+’ as a way to find Google+ profiles, though, this option is gone. Instead, Google asked users to use double quotes to ensure that none of Google’s usual corrections, personalizations or other changes are applied to this term. Now, however, after some vocal opposition against the disappearance of the ‘+’ search operator, Google is introducing a new tool that brings some of this functionality back: verbatim search.

This new tool will be rolling out to all Google users over the next few days. Once it’s available for you, it will hide in the side bar, though, where you will have to click on “more search tools” and then look for it at the bottom of the list.

While few users are likely to really need this tool, it’s nice to have it as an option, though just adding quotation marks around a term seems to be a bit easier than clicking through to the “more search tools” option.

Algorithm Changes Coming, Too

Google also acknowledged that it plans to make some changes to when its “query broadening search improvements” triggers, which seems to be an admission that its current algorithms sometimes go overboard in trying to correct or broaden search queries.