Google Search Tips:Punctuation and symbols in search

Punctuation and symbols in search

Generally, most punctuation and special characters are ignored in Google Search. However, we’re expanding our search capabilities to support some characters that modify search terms and help Google find exactly what you’re looking for.
Here are some examples from the growing list of popular symbols that are supported:

• Plus sign (+) to search for things like blood type [ AB+ ] or the programming language [ C++ ]
• "At" sign (@) for finding social tags like [ @google ] or [ @ladygaga ]
• Ampersand (&) for strongly connected ideas and phrases like [ A&E ] or [ Brothers & Sisters ]
• Dollar sign ($) to indicate prices, so [ nikon 400 ] and [ nikon $400 ] give different results
• Hashtag/number sign (#) to search for trending topics indicated by hashtags like [ #lifewithoutgoogle ]
• Dash (-) will sometimes be used as a sign that the words around it are very strongly connected, as in [ twelve-year-old dog ] and [ cross-reference ]
• Underscore symbol (_) is not ignored when it connects two words, like [ quick_sort ]

Even though the symbols listed above are supported by Google, including them in your searches doesn’t always improve the results. In some instances, punctuation may cause your search to return only poor content or even none at all. In these cases, Google might show you a suggested search or results for that search without punctuation if those results seem more useful.

For more tips & tricks: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/