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I've found that Google tries too hard to "fix" all my search queries for me now. The top results often don't include one or more of the words that I entered, ev

I've found that Google tries too hard to "fix" all my search queries for me now. The top results often don't include one or more of the words that I entered, even if they were crucial for what I was trying to find. I can switch it to "Verbatim" and that helps sometimes, but they really can't expect anyone except very technical users to even realize that's an option (or what it does).

flak48 8y ago
How do you do that? I've noticed Google no longer even fully respects keywords/phrases in quotes which used to force exact matches. EDIT: NVM, found it by uhm.. googling : https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2126346/google-introduces-verbatim-searching https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2126346/google-introd... Had no idea this existed though..
- Deimorz 8y ago
  After you search, you have to click the "Tools" button and then change the "All results" dropdown to "Verbatim". It's bad UX, there's no indication at all for why I'd want to click on a dropdown that says "All results".
  - gxx 8y ago
    You can append !gvb to a DDG search to directly perform a Google verbatim search. It's the fastest way to do a Google verbatim search - faster than Google's own UI. Not only does appending !gvb to a DDG search perform a Google verbatim search, it also directly reveals the Google UI for searching a date range. The combination of normal DDG plus easy access to Google verbatim and date range seaches gives a pretty nice search experience.
sli 8y ago
I find it particularly frustrating when the top results literally contain none of the words I entered, and Google makes sure to show me that by listing my entire query with all the words crossed out. If it's not all of them, it's all but one. This happens to me regularly. More often than not, it seems like.
AznHisoka 8y ago
I've noticed that as well, but then I just realized there just aren't many places where people are talking about the specific thing I'm querying about... which is a lonely feeling :(
sebazzz 8y ago
I have found that if you prepend phrases or words with a plus sign ("+"), at least on Bing, but Google uses the same syntax, those words are forced to be included.

flak48 8y ago

How do you do that? I've noticed Google no longer even fully respects keywords/phrases in quotes which used to force exact matches. EDIT: NVM, found it by uhm.. googling : https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2126346/google-introduces-verbatim-searching https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2126346/google-introd... Had no idea this existed though..

Deimorz 8y ago
After you search, you have to click the "Tools" button and then change the "All results" dropdown to "Verbatim". It's bad UX, there's no indication at all for why I'd want to click on a dropdown that says "All results".
- gxx 8y ago
  You can append !gvb to a DDG search to directly perform a Google verbatim search. It's the fastest way to do a Google verbatim search - faster than Google's own UI. Not only does appending !gvb to a DDG search perform a Google verbatim search, it also directly reveals the Google UI for searching a date range. The combination of normal DDG plus easy access to Google verbatim and date range seaches gives a pretty nice search experience.

sli 8y ago

I find it particularly frustrating when the top results literally contain none of the words I entered, and Google makes sure to show me that by listing my entire query with all the words crossed out. If it's not all of them, it's all but one. This happens to me regularly. More often than not, it seems like.

AznHisoka 8y ago

I've noticed that as well, but then I just realized there just aren't many places where people are talking about the specific thing I'm querying about... which is a lonely feeling :(

sebazzz 8y ago

I have found that if you prepend phrases or words with a plus sign ("+"), at least on Bing, but Google uses the same syntax, those words are forced to be included.