Handle different variations of double quotation ("„“”) marks the same way

[macraig]

Cross-posting from meilisearch/meilisearch#5460

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Describe the issue
As reported in meilisearch/meilisearch#3689, Meilisearch does not treat different variations of double quotation marks the same way. This inconsistency affects search results on platforms where the default keyboard inputs alternate versions of quotes, such as „, “, or ”.

This issue especially impacts exact-match search queries—e.g., a search for “Hanter” does not return the same results as "Hanter"

While this can be worked around by normalizing quotes, it still seems like a bug or at the very least something that should be documented.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to meilisearch.com
2. Search for “Hanter”
3. Search for "Hanter"
4. Observe that the results differ

Expected behavior
Meilisearch should normalize different styles of double quotes so they are treated equivalently. This would improve search consistency across devices, platforms, and international keyboards.

Screenshots

Additional context
Normalization workaround:

export function standardizePunctuation(query) {
  // Replace double quote variations (“ ” „) with standard double quote (")
  return query.replace(/\u201C|\u201D|\u201E/g, '\u0022');
}