Google's Tilde Operator No Longer Works

Google had an advanced search operator that allowed you get results for different variations of your query. "Normally, synonyms might replace some words in your original query. Add a tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a word to search for that word as well as even more synonyms. For example, [~food facts] includes results for 'nutrition facts'," explained Google.



Now the tilde operator is missing from Google's help center article and it no longer works. A search for [~food facts] returns the same results you can find when you search for [food facts]. One workaround is to search for [food OR nutrition facts].



I'm sure that very few people used this obscure operator, but it's just another power user feature that Google removes. Most likely, many others will follow.



Here's one of the many book pages that's now obsolete:

{ Thanks, Enrico Altavilla. }