I'm afraid your test doesn't answer the question that (I think) you were trying to ask, which is whether Google et al are able to _index_ these characters correctly. Your test merely shows that Google ignores them in an input query, not in the index itself. Perhaps some use of the advanced search options would allow a better test?
A site search engine that I work with regularly does have difficulties with this, but mainly because it is hard to define the correct behaviour for all possible situations: should an accented character be stored as different to the same character without the accent? The answer is basically 'which will the user search for?' In one case it is necessary to treat all accented characters as though they were the same base character, and in the other case they must be kept distinct. Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: listdad@webstandardsgroup.org > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dmitry Baranovskiy > Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 5:52 AM > To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org > Subject: Re: [WSG] No. abbreviation glyph > > >> > Actually in both cases you shouldn't use 'x', but × > or × > >> Good point. But will a screen reader find '×' and say > >> 'times', or for > >> that matter Andrew's unicode alternatives? > > > > There's a key question. Anyone got a screen reader handy to test it? > > Sadly I don't... > > Add to this “Will search engines correctly understand such a > symbols?” The answer is “No”. > > Compare: > > 3×4 > http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=3%D74&btnG=Search&meta= > 3x4 > http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=3x4&btnG=Search&meta= > 3 4 > http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=3+4&btnG=Search&meta= > > As you can see first and last results are equal, which means that > Google ignore × symbol. Try this two links as well: > > fl as ligature http://www.google.com.au/search? > hl=en&q=flickr&btnG=Search&meta= > fl as two letters http://www.google.com.au/search? > hl=en&q=flickr&btnG=Search&meta= > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ******************************************************************* > > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
