The abandonment of most operators by Google is a crying shame. I wrote a
toolbar for MSWord that allows ESL students to look up strings that they
typically have problems with (e.g. "I like to go to shopping"). By
highlighting (i.e. substituting wild cards for) words they're unsure of.
Google (or better Google News) would indicate what is possible (or at
least probable) -- e.g. "I like to go [Christmas/window/...] shopping."
Neither Webcorp (too slow currently), nor the Linguist's Search Engine
replace this functionality yet. I've tried Excite and Overture, but they
don't seem to support wild cards consistently. Any other ideas? Hopefully
Webcorp developments will address the need.
John Milton
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
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