How can I emulate Vim's * search in GNU Emacs?

Question

In Vim the * key in normal mode searches for the word under the cursor. In GNU Emacs the closest native equivalent would be:

C-s C-w

But th

Answer 1

Mickey of Mastering Emacs blog reintroduced a cool "Smart Scan" lib that gives global bindings of M-n and M-p for navigating symbols under the cursor in the buffer. Doesn't affect search register so it's not a * replacement as is, but a clever and usable alternative to the navigation problem.