Google's Cutts: Dropping ~ Operator Gives Us More Space To Index More Pages

Jun 27, 2013 - 8:28 am 3 by

Google ~TildeTuesday we reported that Google quietly dropped the ~tilde operator due to lack of use.

The operator helped searches find synonymous, a form of expanding your query. It was primarily used by librarians and also SEMs looking for keyword research ideas.

Google's head of search spam, expanded on why Google dropped the feature. Matt Cutts said on Twitter that yes, it wasn't used much at all by real searchers and by removing the operator it take up less "indexing space" Google "could use for more pages."

Here is Matt Cutts tweet:

What would you prefer? More of your pages indexed or the ~tilde operator? Why not both? ;-)

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Ads

Google's Pichai: Search Ads With AI Overviews Earn Same As Ads Without

May 16, 2025 - 8:50 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 16, 2025

May 16, 2025 - 8:01 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Rethinking Search, Replacing Reddit, Search Console Annotations & So Much More

May 16, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

Google Maps 2024: 999 Million Reviews & 752 Million Photos / Videos Published

May 16, 2025 - 7:51 am
Apple App Store

Apple Maps Adds Insights, Ratings & Reviews From More Sources

May 16, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Working To Make It Easier To Share AI Overviews & AI Mode

May 16, 2025 - 7:31 am
Previous Story: Matt Cutts As Moses In SEO's Ten Commandments