Yes, searching for "sky+" does work, but that's not what I'm after.
If you search for "sky +" then you are just effectively searching for "sky" - it just ignores the "+" completely.
Try searching for "3 + 2 = 5", and you get results like "3-2-5" - not much use.
It's not the end of the world, but I would really like to know how it's possible to escape such characters.