4 ms·

Because google isn't really a search engine anymore. Search engines just do dumb scraping of web pages. Google understands the webpage, so that when I look up

by jbob2000 10y ago

Because google isn't really a search engine anymore. Search engines just do dumb scraping of web pages. Google understands the webpage, so that when I look up "pancake recipe" it will just show me the steps to making pancakes rather than pointing me to websites with pancake recipes. It's more like an "internet integrator".

tyingq 10y ago
Google says it is: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/464?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/464?hl=en
- jbob2000 10y ago
  Because that's how they're known, search engine is the colloquial term for them. It just seems disingenuous to call them that when their version of "search engine" is space-age while everyone else is palaeolithic era. I thought it would spark an interesting discussion...
  - tyingq 10y ago
    I'll vote for "contextual ad engine". I suspect the r&d dollars are mostly spent there now that there's little incentive to improve the organic results. My definition of ad is broader than Google's though. I would include all their various widgets that are displacing organic search.
MichaelBurge 10y ago
Whether or not that's right or wrong, when you use that word "because" you're saying those pancake recipes and similar features are causally related to the search results. So in particular, if Google removed those advanced features, Google would show up in the results of this query after the next reindexing. Can you confirm that you're not just making a claim, but arguing that it affects the Google search results?
- jbob2000 10y ago
  I hadn't intended to make that point with my comment, but I kinda like it - that google has advanced themselves so much that their own algorithms don't recognize them as a search engine any more.
grzm 10y ago
Because google isn't really a search engine anymore I think you might say Google isn't /just/ a search engine anymore. That said, it still very much returns results I search for. How it processes and indexes web content or displays those results doesn't seem restricted by the name "search engine".

tyingq 10y ago

Google says it is: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/464?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/464?hl=en

jbob2000 10y ago
Because that's how they're known, search engine is the colloquial term for them. It just seems disingenuous to call them that when their version of "search engine" is space-age while everyone else is palaeolithic era. I thought it would spark an interesting discussion...
- tyingq 10y ago
  I'll vote for "contextual ad engine". I suspect the r&d dollars are mostly spent there now that there's little incentive to improve the organic results. My definition of ad is broader than Google's though. I would include all their various widgets that are displacing organic search.

MichaelBurge 10y ago

Whether or not that's right or wrong, when you use that word "because" you're saying those pancake recipes and similar features are causally related to the search results. So in particular, if Google removed those advanced features, Google would show up in the results of this query after the next reindexing. Can you confirm that you're not just making a claim, but arguing that it affects the Google search results?

jbob2000 10y ago
I hadn't intended to make that point with my comment, but I kinda like it - that google has advanced themselves so much that their own algorithms don't recognize them as a search engine any more.

grzm 10y ago

Because google isn't really a search engine anymore I think you might say Google isn't /just/ a search engine anymore. That said, it still very much returns results I search for. How it processes and indexes web content or displays those results doesn't seem restricted by the name "search engine".