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Nothing has changed with Google (Bing and Duckduckgo are the same too more or less). 10 years ago it still did essentially the same thing, it's up to you to use

by wyck 9y ago

Nothing has changed with Google (Bing and Duckduckgo are the same too more or less). 10 years ago it still did essentially the same thing, it's up to you to use the more advanced features to filter the results. For example if you type "marco polo doctor's -doctor -who" or "marco polo doctors group:science". Google operators for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search#Search_syntax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search#Search_syntax Cheat Sheet: https://www.searchlaboratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/searchoperators.jpg https://www.searchlaboratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/...

WalterGR 9y ago
Google has absolutely changed in the past 10 years. Have you tried looking for something obscure recently? Google increasingly over time takes more and more liberties with your search terms, regardless of operator use. I notice that one of the pages you link to is from 2012. Again, the old ways just don't cut it any more. Since it doesn't even mention Google's "Verbatim" search option, it suggests to me that while its content might be technically correct, it's useless to hand-wave towards it as the cure for contemporary complaints about Google's results.
- wyck 9y ago
  Sorry to be clear, I meant that to find information you always had to do bit of digging, it's true the algorithm has changed a lot.
  - gkya 9y ago
    Not only the algorithm. Recently, using double quotes or plus sign before terms became useless, as it just lists results with the specific word you marked crossed over when there are not much exact hits.
    - Izkata 9y ago
      > Recently, using [..] plus sign before terms became useless Unless it came back at some point, it wasn't very recent - it was intentionally removed in 2011 due to their using "+" for their social network.
- loxs 9y ago
  Tell me about it. I am an Erlang programmer and I am currently learning OCaml... It's extremely hard to find OCaml topics, as Google bombards me with Erlang results. This certainly was not like this 10 years ago.
akvadrako 9y ago
This isn't true - that syntax is no longer honoured by default. It may give the search engine clues about what you want, but it sometimes chooses to ignore keywords and double quotes. Verbatim mode is a little better, but still not as direct as it was 10 years ago.
stagbeetle 9y ago
Google has removed literals. You can no longer do 'how to setup obscure program "LINUX" "NGINX"' What you get in return is a bunch of slashed out "Linux"s and "Nginx"s and a bunch of "How to setup obscure program... On windows" and "How to setup obscure program... on Apache". It's downright infuriating having to learn some of the tools I cannot do without. Ones where documentation is spotty, but user forums/mailing lists/etc are top notch, even for Linux and Nginx. But, you won't know that even if you specifically type: 'setup obscure program "Linux" "Nginx" -apache -windows'. It has changed. You don't have the right to find what you're actually looking for. You have the privilege to only look in places Google approves.

by wyck 9y ago

WalterGR 9y ago

Google has absolutely changed in the past 10 years. Have you tried looking for something obscure recently? Google increasingly over time takes more and more liberties with your search terms, regardless of operator use. I notice that one of the pages you link to is from 2012. Again, the old ways just don't cut it any more. Since it doesn't even mention Google's "Verbatim" search option, it suggests to me that while its content might be technically correct, it's useless to hand-wave towards it as the cure for contemporary complaints about Google's results.

wyck 9y ago
Sorry to be clear, I meant that to find information you always had to do bit of digging, it's true the algorithm has changed a lot.
- gkya 9y ago
  Not only the algorithm. Recently, using double quotes or plus sign before terms became useless, as it just lists results with the specific word you marked crossed over when there are not much exact hits.
  - Izkata 9y ago
    > Recently, using [..] plus sign before terms became useless Unless it came back at some point, it wasn't very recent - it was intentionally removed in 2011 due to their using "+" for their social network.
loxs 9y ago
Tell me about it. I am an Erlang programmer and I am currently learning OCaml... It's extremely hard to find OCaml topics, as Google bombards me with Erlang results. This certainly was not like this 10 years ago.

akvadrako 9y ago

This isn't true - that syntax is no longer honoured by default. It may give the search engine clues about what you want, but it sometimes chooses to ignore keywords and double quotes. Verbatim mode is a little better, but still not as direct as it was 10 years ago.

stagbeetle 9y ago

Google has removed literals. You can no longer do 'how to setup obscure program "LINUX" "NGINX"' What you get in return is a bunch of slashed out "Linux"s and "Nginx"s and a bunch of "How to setup obscure program... On windows" and "How to setup obscure program... on Apache". It's downright infuriating having to learn some of the tools I cannot do without. Ones where documentation is spotty, but user forums/mailing lists/etc are top notch, even for Linux and Nginx. But, you won't know that even if you specifically type: 'setup obscure program "Linux" "Nginx" -apache -windows'. It has changed. You don't have the right to find what you're actually looking for. You have the privilege to only look in places Google approves.