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

;Here is my version: Emulates Visual Studio/Windows key bindings 
; C-F3 - Start searching the word at the point
; F3 searches forward and Shift F3 goes reverse

(setq my-search-wrap nil)

(defun my-search-func (dir)
  (interactive)
  (let* ((text (car search-ring)) newpoint)
        (when my-search-wrap  
             (goto-char (if (= dir 1) (point-min) (point-max)))
             (setq my-search-wrap nil))
        (setq newpoint (search-forward text nil t dir))
        (if newpoint
          (set-mark (if (= dir 1) (- newpoint (length text))
                         (+ newpoint (length text))))
          (message "Search Failed: %s" text) (ding)
          (setq my-search-wrap text))))

(defun my-search-fwd () (interactive) (my-search-func 1))
(defun my-search-bwd () (interactive) (my-search-func -1))

(defun yank-thing-into-search ()
   (interactive)
   (let ((text (if mark-active
          (buffer-substring-no-properties (region-beginning)(region-end))
                 (or (current-word) ""))))
     (when (> (length text) 0) (isearch-update-ring text) (setq my-search-wrap nil)
            (my-search-fwd))))
(global-set-key (kbd "")    'my-search-fwd)            ; Visual Studio like search keys
(global-set-key (kbd "")  'my-search-bwd)
(global-set-key (kbd "")  'yank-thing-into-search)