For example, I was doing R&D for my alumni group and was looking at memorial sites that might have obits on my fellow Jaspers. Yeah I know depressing but someone has to do it. And, people like to know about their college buddies with whom they have lost touch.

Any way, back to the point, many sites offer a search. And on many it’s broken. Unfortunately, I have to have a search string with a space in it.

My preferred string is:

“manhattan college” -marymount -“borough of manhattan”

but most places barf at the minus sign. AND, many places search as if you said “manhattan” or “college”, ignoring the quoting. Some are a little better using “manhattan” and “college”.

So for example, I am not interested in “Borough of Manhattan Community College”, but get it if the site doesn’t parse “manhattan college” correctly.

I do often drop back to Google, who does it right, and use the “site:” option. That sometimes works.

I usually leave a nasty gram at the offending site like:

***Begin Quote***

Your advanced search doesn’t seem to work correctly. I searched for “manhattan college” and it returned lost of hits. I didn’t find any of my fellow alums and gave up. Just thought you’d want to know.

***End Quote***

BUT have never received any feedback, an “Ooopps”, or “live with it”, or “wadda ya want for free”, or just a form letter “Thanks for your email, your email is very important to us here in India”.

Arghh!