Does search allow partial word searches like search* or search%

This is not provided by the Drupal core search (see this issue), but there might be some contributed modules that do this.

With the patch in the issue linked by Liseu your search will find "searches" even if looking for "searc" or "earche"...

Well I'm building my site, and labouring a bit.

The search module, and it's lack of flexibility in searching for partial words leaves me a bit stuck for words. Reading all the throw backs to people who have looked for such capability, makes me wonder if the gods have forsaken mankind, I mean searching is the holy grail of the internet, and here we have a car that has been protected in its limited form because it does 300kph, but it can't go around corners, so what's the point.

I finally found a 2008 reference to a patch, which with my limited capabilities and a little luck, implememted and now have a functional search engine.

So why is it that Drupal can't implement a search that works with partial words and wildcards, or do we have to just wait for Google to index our sites instead?

I must say, working with Drupal is like a continuous compile/build exercise. Nothing is simple! Why not, I thought the desire for simplicity was in the first line of the documentation I read, but don't ask me to find it again