Talk:Proximity search (text)

This page reads like an advertisement from someone who works for exalead. It is my understanding that articles should not have commericial implications in wikipedia, and I would suggest these references be removed. Instead, discuss the technology in a generic manner, and then if you really must, provide a list of commercial software or technology, without bias, and be exhaustive. There is too much of a tone of "we do this but they do not so we are better". No one wants to see this in an encyclopedia. jfroelich Dec 2006

This seems to have been changed to no longer look like an exalead promotion. Currently, the emphasis seems to be on Google, even though its support of proximity searches is indirect. 75.17.116.70 (talk) 22:38, 23 December 2009 (UTC) Comet, Dec. 2009

I can't get the function to work on Yahoo. a isn't the magic character, nor A, @, ~, *, RickJS 18:52, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

I was surprised to read the claim that "a" is used as a 'wildcard' in Yahoo!.

If it can't be confirmed, it should be removed. — DIV (128.250.80.15 (talk) 01:48, 8 December 2008 (UTC))

"Before March 2005, the one exception was in phrase searches where common words such as 'of,' 'the,' 'a,' 'in,' '2,' and 'www' acted only as placeholders and could represent any word." 75.17.116.70 (talk) 22:38, 23 December 2009 (UTC) Comet

I don't have a problem with prominently mentioning which notable search engines do include explicit proximity search features, although the article mustn't read like an advertisement.

One thing I was struggling to remember, I swear that either Google or Yahoo! or AltaVista used to previously have explicit proximity search features, eitehr through a "NEAR" command-line syntax, or through an option (with separation by up to N words) in the Advanced Search screen. It's not mentioned in the article, but I wonder whether anyone else can remember this, and more importantly whether anyone knows why the feature was removed!! Perhaps disk-space constraints? Search-tmie constraints? Confusing users? Too little demand (screen clutter / UI)?

—DIV (128.250.80.15 (talk) 01:35, 8 December 2008 (UTC))

AltaVista used to support the NEAR operator. 75.17.116.70 (talk) 22:38, 23 December 2009 (UTC) Comet

Update: AltaVista does (still?) support proximity search using the NEAR keyword, although it no longer appears to be documented. —DIV (128.250.80.15 (talk) 01:50, 8 December 2008 (UTC))

Google offers an AROUND operator for proximity search. It is even configurable with a maximal distance: eg. cat AROUND(4) dog132.231.54.1 (talk) 14:54, 18 April 2011 (UTC)