The search box sure needs some improvement

Question

On trying to find some code that contains a (with the quotes included) "}" I did a search for code:"}" but that just search for a simple } as it takes the double quotes as some quoting mechanism (for which I can not find the description/rules/Howto).

Then I tried code:'"}"' for which I get backa page that states that the search term was:

Search options: code '"}"', not deleted

With no results. Then I though: Could it be outside of code sections?

So, I searched for '"}"'. And the reply was that

We couldn't find anything for '' "}"

I though: Why are the single quotes outside the quoted string? So, I tried: /Hello"}"World/

The reply was a list of some Hello World answers (yes, with the space). And the search reply had this: Results for /helloworld/ "}" at the start.

I though: Could it be better to quote the search? So I tried `"/Hello"}"World/" but the reply said:

Results for "/Hello" "World/"

The } got erased.

So: How could I search for the literal string "}" (with the quotes, yes) ?

Answer 1

I don't know, but I have some pointers to more information that was a bit too much for a comment:

• terdon mentioned an external search engine in /dev/chat called http://www.symbolhound.com/; I've never used it, but it might be worth a try.
• There's Quotes break the search that is from 2016 which is marked as fixed, but has several linked threads that talk about quoted searches.
• The most recent discussion seems to be on Meta SO: Search for special characters isn't working as advertised where Shog9 says "apparently this is something we broke in one of the Elastic upgrades, so it'll probably take some work to get it back"

I believe that search is a core feature of the Stack Exchange software (nothing specific to U&L), so you may get better (more current, more informed) responses on Meta Stack Exchange.