OT(?) search engine with "NEAR xx' operator?

[Achim Nolcken Lohse]

Have been looking for some time for a search site/toolbar that
supports the boolean operator "NEAR xx".

Altavista advanced searches used to provide this function, but it was
removed quite a while ago. I've tried searching the web for such
engines, but haven't had any luck at all.

Without the 'near" operator, boolean searches are mostly an exercise
in frustration, as the hits tend to be huge documents that include the
search terms, but not in any relation to each other.

 

[Frank Bohan]

Have been looking for some time for a search site/toolbar that
supports the boolean operator "NEAR xx".

Altavista advanced searches used to provide this function, but it was
removed quite a while ago. I've tried searching the web for such
engines, but haven't had any luck at all.

Without the 'near" operator, boolean searches are mostly an exercise
in frustration, as the hits tend to be huge documents that include the
search terms, but not in any relation to each other.

--

Achim
_____/)
axethetax

Have you looked at:

http://library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html

Two engines are listed as "full Boolean logic". I assume this includes NEAR.

===

Frank Bohan
¶ Corduroy pillows make headlines.

 

[Achim Nolcken Lohse]

Have you looked at:

http://library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html

Two engines are listed as "full Boolean logic". I assume this includes NEAR.

Thanks Frank. I followed your suggestion, and tried both engines. The
results were quite interesting.

As you supposed, both support boolean searches using the NEAR operator
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any detailed description of its use,
such as the default number for near, or whether this number could be
modified, so I just tried it without an argument.

My first trial was with the metasearch engine Ixquick. I got no hits
at all on repeated searches. Then I did a simple search on a single
word, and followed up by using NEAR and a second word that I KNEW to
meet the criteria. Still not a single hit. Then I read the
instructions more carefully and noted the part advising that Ixquick
only sends "complicated" searches to search engines that can handle
them. Apparently none of the sites Ixquick looked at had both my
search terms and support for NEAR.

I then tried the same search on the other search engine - MSN Advanced
Search, and got hundreds of hits. I've overcome my extreme antipathy
for MS and put it on my Favourites list.