Question about plus sign (+)

I know this is a basic question, but it's something that has always confused me. I thought that the default operation when entering more than one keyword was a boolean "and". Therfore, I would expect that if I entered the following keywords: xlk excel I would get the same results as if I entered: xlk +excel. However that does not seem to be the case. What is the error is my thinking?
Thanks,

 

Welcome, speedo.

Yeah, the default is "and" (actually, "and/or", weighted toward "and"). The "+" is actually *supposed* to force Google to only include pages that with term. So, yes, there are differences in the searches.

 

plus sign = space in google

 

It doesnt' actually mean that "+" sign = space in Google. If you look through several searches using both variants you will see.

 

I don't know also

 

I agree with michael007, it just means "and" in technical terms. You get a more narrowed selection of content. Hope this helps?

 

Hmm interesting, I always figured "and" and "+" were the same to google.