Google Introduces Verbatim Searching

Google has added a tool that explicitly searches for exactly and only your search term. Verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results and will replace the retired "+" functionality in search queries.

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Date published
November 18, 2011 Categories

In response to user requests, Google has added a tool that explicitly searches for exactly and only your search term. This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results.

The Verbatim Tool

After conducting any standard search, users can navigate to the left menu on the SERP and choose “More search options” > “Verbatim.” This will direct the user to a new search results page that eliminates several types of results.

On the verbatim page, users will see only results that:

This means that pages that would normally be included simply won’t appear. Some pages set for omission in this case would be those that: use alternate forms or tenses; use synonyms; auto-correct spelling; or are personalized based on the history and social connections of the user.

Verbatim search will replace the “+” functionality in search queries. While putting a phrase in quotes (e.g., “this is my query”) will still pull a search for sites that use the exact phrase and spelling, the verbatim search – as noted above – strips down the results to a far greater degree.

Google also noted that they are “applying similar ideas directly to [their] algorithms, such as tuning the accuracy of when our query broadening search improvements trigger.” This likely means that as users choose to use verbatim searches, Google will gain a better understanding of when their suggestions and corrections are effective and times when they should have been avoided.

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