I've notice this have been getting worse-
Google had depreciated the "+" character when searching.
Put your search terms in separate quotes seems to be the way:
"antenna" "removal"
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=151ef6cf0a761b74&hl=en
The boolean search is pretty much useless on goodle and the bubble search getting worse for most people.
I have been using
duckduckgo.com for some time you can use boolean with it and it works quite well. It also has bang which with the ! you can search a specific site for what you define.
eg:
http://duckduckgo.com/?q=Steve+Wood+!turbobuicksTakes a bit to get used to the layout as it is pretty basic. You can customize it to your liking a little.
Best part is no info storing or tracking or refeerers etc. A few times I have seen a couple refers may have been when they where changing or working on the server but that has not happen in some time.
No page number either just keep scrolling and the search will continue and display.
Also if you are using Firefox; Ghostery works well.
There are a few other add-ons that you can use too.
If someone knows of a better current engine please post it up.
AJ___