Google adds verbatim search tool

Google has announced search improvements to help users find exactly what they're searching for.

Google offers services that help make search results more accurate for users. For example, the '+' operator helped search for specific terms.

But a few weeks ago, Google announced the termination of the '+' operator, finding it was being used incorrectly two-thirds of the time.

Since then, Google has reviewed requests for a better way to search using exact terms for users typing into the search bar.

A new search tool, called verbatim, will expand searches to request the actual words users searched for, instead of Google filling in what it thinks you might be searching for, based on previous search results.

When the feature is switched on, Google will search without making usual improvements such as automatic spelling corrections, including synonyms of the items being searched, finding results that match similar terms, searching for words with the same stem, or making terms optional.

"We're also applying similar ideas directly to our algorithms, such as tuning the accuracy of when our query broadening search improvements trigger," Google added in a blog post.

Users can switch on the verbatim search tool under the "more search tools" on the left hand side of the screen from today.