AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Advanced Google Searches - Wildcard and Proximity Searches

You'll look high & low in the google.com faq's but you won't find mention of the wildcard character "*". The wildcard can stand for any word or initial. It is great to search on someone's name when you don't know their middle initial. Do the search first without the middle initial

"John Smith"

Then do it again with the wildcard

"John * Smith"



Google Search: google wildcard
*


Google does not directly support proximity searches. Third parties have come up with scripts to do it. Try this one.