Google search with exact phrase and multiple variables?

November 11, 2009 11:20 PM

Is it possible to run a google search with an exact phrase and multiple variables? I'd like to see if a fixed search term (an exact phrase) returns any results when paired with a number of variables. I have approximately 200 variables and rather than run 200 seperate searches, would it be possible to run the search in one go? Something along the lines of "exact phrase" AND ( n1 OR n2 OR n3...). The variables will be exact phrases as well.
posted by Mrs. Buck Turgidson to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Try:

"exact phrase" (n1 | n2 | ... )
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:47 PM on November 11, 2009

If the variables are numbers, you can also do numeric range searches like:

"exact phrase" 200..300
posted by zippy at 12:25 AM on November 12, 2009

Why not just write a script?
posted by delmoi at 12:26 AM on November 12, 2009

If you want to script it, you could use the Google Search AJAX API. If you don't require Google, Yahoo also offers a search API that seems more flexible.
posted by zippy at 12:55 AM on November 12, 2009

In answer my own question: no it's not possible. Running the search resulted in the following message from google: "we limit queries to 32 words."
posted by Mrs. Buck Turgidson at 4:25 PM on November 12, 2009