▁is ▁submitted ▁as ▁the ▁HTTP ▁request ▁body ▁rather ▁than ▁being ▁included ▁in ▁a ▁modified ▁URL . ▁ ▁Index ed ▁search ▁ ▁Before ▁forms ▁were ▁added ▁to ▁HTML , ▁browsers ▁rendered ▁the ▁ ▁element ▁as ▁a ▁single - line ▁text - input ▁control . ▁The ▁text ▁entered ▁into ▁this ▁control ▁was ▁sent ▁to ▁the ▁server ▁as ▁a ▁query ▁string ▁addition ▁to ▁a ▁GET ▁request ▁for ▁the ▁base ▁URL ▁or ▁another ▁URL ▁specified ▁by ▁the ▁ ▁attribute . ▁This ▁was ▁intended ▁to ▁allow ▁web ▁servers ▁to ▁use ▁the ▁provided ▁text ▁as ▁query ▁criteria ▁so ▁they ▁could ▁return ▁a ▁list ▁of ▁matching ▁pages . ▁ ▁When ▁the ▁text ▁input ▁into ▁the ▁indexed ▁search ▁control ▁is ▁submitted , ▁it ▁is ▁encoded ▁as ▁a ▁query ▁string ▁as ▁follows : ▁▁ ▁The ▁query ▁string ▁is ▁composed ▁of ▁a ▁series ▁of ▁arguments ▁by ▁parsing ▁the ▁text ▁into ▁words ▁at ▁the ▁spaces . ▁ ▁The ▁series ▁is ▁separated ▁by ▁the ▁plus ▁sign , ▁' + '. ▁ ▁Though ▁the ▁ ▁element ▁is ▁deprecated ▁and ▁most ▁browsers ▁no ▁longer ▁support ▁or ▁render ▁it , ▁there ▁are ▁still ▁some ▁v estig es ▁of ▁indexed ▁search ▁in ▁existence . ▁For ▁example , ▁this ▁is ▁the ▁source ▁of ▁the ▁special ▁handling ▁of ▁plus ▁sign , ▁' +' ▁within ▁browser ▁URL ▁percent ▁encoding ▁( which ▁today , ▁with ▁the ▁deprec ation ▁of ▁indexed ▁search , ▁is ▁all ▁but ▁redundant ▁with ▁% 2 0 ). ▁Also ▁some ▁web ▁servers ▁supporting ▁CG I ▁( e . g ., ▁Apache ) ▁will ▁process ▁the ▁query ▁string ▁into ▁command ▁line