Google Suggest is less smart than the search engine and doesn't offer relevant suggestions if you type c# books. Google ignores the hash sign and shows the suggestions for c books. To find results for your query, you need to press Enter or to select the last item from the suggestion list.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ksgWwsJw7WPkKUmx1D7_Rw6Dk5tvV24LYa0fzRfVJqPR4tg8Qm2OHdIjp9f6oNuRWIKkazLNEmSjuExQJTlA-OPkkdRf7hOD9KELtzQsxKM13LUlhX1oXAItWqFevbSJIAu-8Q/s640/google-instant-special-characters-bug.png)
Another example: type $1 and Google shows suggestions for 1. Instead of showing relevant results for the query, Google displays the search results for [1 corinthians 13].
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi55ldh6syjHE4AfHxtemYuDiQ8zkFVi-wDhCHr-ctc7UnXKkp1w-CIQT2KT-OYUJQDq7R9mUp9OmIY-ACESqdxWjQDcS_x-CUVO4mU5E43Ppu5uqpGmycQ1OIAib_lkELYhGXXuQ/s640/google-instant-special-characters-bug-2.png)
Bing's suggestions are actually useful:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMfeoOnrxLMvYUVKaaIIg-NoRqIL5Y6UBboPgHMan36yzxcocx5ypiIaTXOzXUy1-pK7Aba-dw_Il4hcaeH-EyVsz_deXz-2mnB3BQlrrk8WmHMCbdWSP_8J3X1tnS_4PbxzJ83g/s640/google-instant-special-characters-bug-bing.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMryHBN19-V12DXSy3mUNQpUiYKFN_HZGlmLAH5u-CW0wVikVMA2vD4MSVIOQcfaQyY-7HGPGrl0B2Ht-LhbiAkoHoDbBlIKXkcsg-6e7_IhqYS41AC012VcZRzq2qXSOk59BHA/s640/google-instant-special-characters-bug-bing-2.png)
While Google Instant helps you type popular queries faster, sometimes it's slowing things down because it shows the results for a different query.
{ spotted by Sundararajan S. }
1 guy 1 cup is relevant to me
ReplyDeleteGoogle Code Search is better for those types of searches anyway. http://www.google.com/codesearch
ReplyDeleteAre there any Web search engines supporting special characters?
ReplyDeleteyes, bing...
ReplyDeleteKurtextrem,
ReplyDeleteNo, Bing doesn't respect special characters (except only a few well-known combinations).
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/941/exactsearch01.png
nice notice !
ReplyDeleteI would have never noticed that, good looking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, really helpfull
ReplyDeleteAs we mentioned in a blog post on our website, "will people actually take the time to click the link to turn Google Instant off if they do not like it?" Personally, I gave it a chance for several weeks and did not like it as I tend to do specific long tail searches.
ReplyDeleteI really despise Google Instant's results sometimes; and its speed.
ReplyDeleteIt slows me down more than anything... does anybody know what I am talking about? That small lag when you start typing...
Is there any way to identify Instant searches in the query string?
ReplyDeletethx
http://www.symbolhound.com respects special characters.
ReplyDelete[full disclosure: I am a developer for the site]
Google ignores @#$%^&*()=+[]\, even in quotes, and codesearch is really only for searching source code. You can use SymbolHound to do a web search that includes characters.
Hope that helps! Good luck.
I hope duckduckgo.com shows the search with special characters.You can try out.
ReplyDelete