Proximity Search Available on Google
Google’s undocumented AROUND operator allows for proximity searches such as:
sue AROUND(3) brown
which might be helpful for people finding searches, to pick up hits where a person may or may not use a middle name. AROUND(3) means the terms must appear within 3 words of each other. But note that if Google can not find anything within those parameters, it will use a regular ranking.
The AROUND operator appears to work in Google Scholar as well, when searching for articles or cases. However, the searches I tried had the same or nearly the same results whether the operator was used or not.
Another useful operator to use while searching cases on Google Scholar is the ~ which searches for synonyms and related words for example ~constitutionality searches for constitutional, unconstitutional, etc.
One might also try the * operator, which is a placeholder for a word. For example, sexual * abuse picks up “sexual misconduct abuse”, “sexual child abuse”, etc.
Altavista no longer supports a proximity search – that went away when Yahoo took them over. Exalead uses the proximity operation NEAR, and Bing also has a near operator, eg. near:10. Many other search engines do not have proximity operators.
Thanks to Tom Boone for the tip on the AROUND operator.