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I really hate how google will show every possible copy of a newswire article before it shows local sources, etc. I've had slightly better luck with DuckDuckGo o
by Declanomous 10y ago
I really hate how google will show every possible copy of a newswire article before it shows local sources, etc. I've had slightly better luck with DuckDuckGo on that front, but I always feel like there is a happy medium between Google's ridiculously "context-aware"* algorithm, and DuckDuckGo's "context-agnostic"* algorithm.
What's really annoying is that if you use Google trends, it will let you know the context of what you are looking for, and you can clarify. I really hate it when I'm trying to look for something on Google, and I know it's just using the wrong interpretation of a word.
Easy example: I do a fair amount of scripting in VBA. I often want to look up documentation for things in VBA. If I use VBA in my search term, I will get a bunch of 15 year old pages on Excel tips and tricks. If I search VBA MSDN, I will get a bunch of pages on VB.net or VB6. I specifically have to use VBA MSDN OFFICE ACCESS in order to get the correct results. DuckDuckGo does not have this problem, but I use date filtering a lot, where DDG falls apart.
Search engines aside, it's ridiculous that Microsoft allowed this situation to happen in the first place.
*I'm not sure if either of those terms is remotely accurate, but they seem to articulate what I'm trying to say.
- keltor 10y agoEvery couple of years they seem to wipe out all these kinds of things, so you don't get them, then companies come up with new ways of writing their pages so that they all show up again. Remember when we had all those spammy answer sites that dominated Google searches for almost any technical question?
- wmil 10y agoI'll never forget www.expertsexchange.com. Because that isn't a job for an amature.
- paulddraper 10y agoUm, NSFW?
- wmil 10y agoIt was the original domain for experts-exchange.com. Changed for obvious reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts-Exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts-Exchange
- MereInterest 10y agoThere's still a few of those that pop up. If I am looking for an obscure error message, it might be listed in a single stackoverflow post, but then that question and answer will be repeated in 3-5 copy-cat sites, each having copied the question and answer.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago99% of VBA is used in Excel. The others are just an aberration as far as the indexers are concerned.
- Declanomous 10y agoI understand, and to be fair, half the reason this frustrates me is because I wish I could be using literally any other language. Regardless, I'm often looking up classes that a) don't exist in Excel, and b) don't exist in the version of VBA used in the linked page. It's extremely confusing to click on a link and not having a single reference to the class you are trying to look up. Furthermore, VBA <> VB. I wish I could just tell Google to stop showing me answers for VB6. It would be fantastic if I could use VB. My problems would basically solve themselves, but I'm not using VB, I'm using VBA.
- aspenmayer 10y agoHave you tried adding '-VB6' to your search queries? It will filter out those results. https://bynd.com/news-ideas/google-advanced-search-comprehensive-list-google-search-operators/ https://bynd.com/news-ideas/google-advanced-search-comprehen...
- tomcam 10y agoA possible solution for your particular problem is to use the site operator, e.g. vba sort array site:msdn.com