4 ms·

Can you provide an example of this? People always say this, but never provide the query.

altfredd 8y ago
It's pointless to provide examples, because Google will quickly "recall" anything that is being searched by multiple different people. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to use Google Search for searching in Internet. You are only allowed to look up viral memes and query neural networks, trained by other people's searches. Searching for rare and unique things will quickly get you banned. An interesting side-effect: using modern Google to check if name is vacant is meaningless. I used to google for names to see, if something else used them, but Google's search repeatedly returned me 0 results, even when there were multiple pages with that particular name in title, many of them years old. Searching for the same thing couple of weeks later have suddenly returned hundreds of hits. I wonder, how much it costs to actually query Google's database instead of some distant neural network approximation. Apparently, Google's own employees can't afford it anymore — some of them are using DuckDuckGo instead (they even added it to Chrome, lol)
- gipp 8y ago
  I... What? This is so disconnected from any experience I've ever had searching anything I don't even know how to approach it. What on Earth do viral memes have to do with anything? What does "banned" even mean in this context? There's no such thing as a ban from Google search. And if I were to hazard a guess I think you dramatically overestimate the role of neural networks in search in general.
  - reaperducer 8y ago
    This is so disconnected from any experience I've ever had searching anything I don't even know how to approach it. Then consider yourself lucky. The post was a little rambling, but it wasn't wrong.
  - SCHiM 8y ago
    "banned" in this context probably means that idiotic popup about "unusual traffic detected from your machine" and if i would "pretty please run some anti-virus scanning software please". This happens often when creating complex search terms with 'inurl' and 'intext' operators. This happens to me at least once a month.
    - shawnz 8y ago
      Just curious, do you live in a western country? Do you have a Google account? I use funny queries like that often but I've seen that message maybe only once or twice before. There must be some additional factors involved.
      - SCHiM 8y ago
        Western country while logged in on my google account. I've given it some thought myself, I have that account logged in from a variety of systems: linux boxes and windows boxes some behind a vpn, some not. I suppose it sometimes looks like my account is used for botting, but then again: why wouldn't I be allowed to connect my bot to their results, given that google uses bots to index the content in the first place? Despite the fact that I could probably adjust to better fit their 'nothing weird going on here' preconceptions, I think I'd rather complain and hope that over time it's google that will change.
        londons_explore 8y ago
        Clearing cookies and use of a shared VPN server are the main culprits for this error. If neighbouring IP's to yours abuse Google services, you'll see way more of these errors.
  - eitland 8y ago
    > What does "banned" even mean in this context? There's no such thing as a ban from Google search. You get warnings and captchas.
    - nullc 8y ago
      > You get warnings and captchas. Frequently they are unsolvable captchas that just waste your time. :(
lukeschlather 8y ago
This is an example from yesterday: "azure" devops agent "checkout" "freeze" I'm obviously searching for something very specific here, and Google helpfully decided to show me results omitting "freeze" and "checkout" so I had to quote them. I also notice that it looks like Google thinks that check-up is the same thing as checkout, which in context are not synonyms, though this would require Google to infer "git checkout" but I didn't include git because that would introduce another universe of unhelpful results. https://dzone.com/articles/getting-started-with-jenkins-the-ultimate-guide https://dzone.com/articles/getting-started-with-jenkins-the-... was included which doesn't include "azure" at all, though this is obviously Google being cheeky. Of course I could also call this somewhat sinister, as Google is basically saying I should ditch a direct competitor to their services and instead use a self-hosted service. Or maybe I'm projecting since I would like to ditch Azure DevOps and use Jenkins, but in any case there's an example. Feel free to play with it: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&biw=1396&bih=686&ei=JbGTXIfPMsv9-gTdlbroCQ&q=%22azure%22+devops+agent+%22checkout%22+%22freeze%22&oq=%22azure%22+devops+agent+%22checkout%22+%22freeze%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71l8.0.0..79010...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.JV1CR-xncd4 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&biw=1... Of course, in this case it was a networking problem so I do have to admit that usually when Google starts ignoring what I typed it's because the answer to the question is something else entirely. Though sometimes I know exactly what I'm asking for and Google doesn't get it.
- JoeSmithson 8y ago
  Wow THANK YOU! I have been asking for an example of this for literally years. I think possibly what is happening here is that the index believes "azure" is on the page. Consider the second result here: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding+Secure+Shell%22+site%3Adzone.com&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB814GB814&oq=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding+Secure+Shell%22+site%3Adzone.com&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.497j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding... (the one that starts java.dzone.com but leads to the same article). It appears to have captured at index time a phrase "Microservices and Serverless on Azure" that is no longer in the artcile (possibly a link to another article). Perhaps a Googler can explain exactly what is happening.
reaperducer 8y ago
Can you provide an example of this? People always say this, but never provide the query. Because anyone who's used Google in the last 10 years knows that Google tailors its results to what it thinks you want to see. So a search query that fails for one HN reader may work for another, or at least work differently. A repeated frustration in my life has been explaining to bosses that the search results that appear on their personal phone are not the same as what will appear on a client's computer.

It's pointless to provide examples, because Google will quickly "recall" anything that is being searched by multiple different people. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to use Google Search for searching in Internet. You are only allowed to look up viral memes and query neural networks, trained by other people's searches. Searching for rare and unique things will quickly get you banned. An interesting side-effect: using modern Google to check if name is vacant is meaningless. I used to google for names to see, if something else used them, but Google's search repeatedly returned me 0 results, even when there were multiple pages with that particular name in title, many of them years old. Searching for the same thing couple of weeks later have suddenly returned hundreds of hits. I wonder, how much it costs to actually query Google's database instead of some distant neural network approximation. Apparently, Google's own employees can't afford it anymore — some of them are using DuckDuckGo instead (they even added it to Chrome, lol)

gipp 8y ago
I... What? This is so disconnected from any experience I've ever had searching anything I don't even know how to approach it. What on Earth do viral memes have to do with anything? What does "banned" even mean in this context? There's no such thing as a ban from Google search. And if I were to hazard a guess I think you dramatically overestimate the role of neural networks in search in general.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  This is so disconnected from any experience I've ever had searching anything I don't even know how to approach it. Then consider yourself lucky. The post was a little rambling, but it wasn't wrong.
- SCHiM 8y ago
  "banned" in this context probably means that idiotic popup about "unusual traffic detected from your machine" and if i would "pretty please run some anti-virus scanning software please". This happens often when creating complex search terms with 'inurl' and 'intext' operators. This happens to me at least once a month.
  - shawnz 8y ago
    Just curious, do you live in a western country? Do you have a Google account? I use funny queries like that often but I've seen that message maybe only once or twice before. There must be some additional factors involved.
    - SCHiM 8y ago
      Western country while logged in on my google account. I've given it some thought myself, I have that account logged in from a variety of systems: linux boxes and windows boxes some behind a vpn, some not. I suppose it sometimes looks like my account is used for botting, but then again: why wouldn't I be allowed to connect my bot to their results, given that google uses bots to index the content in the first place? Despite the fact that I could probably adjust to better fit their 'nothing weird going on here' preconceptions, I think I'd rather complain and hope that over time it's google that will change.
      - londons_explore 8y ago
        Clearing cookies and use of a shared VPN server are the main culprits for this error. If neighbouring IP's to yours abuse Google services, you'll see way more of these errors.
- eitland 8y ago
  > What does "banned" even mean in this context? There's no such thing as a ban from Google search. You get warnings and captchas.
  - nullc 8y ago
    > You get warnings and captchas. Frequently they are unsolvable captchas that just waste your time. :(

lukeschlather 8y ago

This is an example from yesterday: "azure" devops agent "checkout" "freeze" I'm obviously searching for something very specific here, and Google helpfully decided to show me results omitting "freeze" and "checkout" so I had to quote them. I also notice that it looks like Google thinks that check-up is the same thing as checkout, which in context are not synonyms, though this would require Google to infer "git checkout" but I didn't include git because that would introduce another universe of unhelpful results. https://dzone.com/articles/getting-started-with-jenkins-the-ultimate-guide https://dzone.com/articles/getting-started-with-jenkins-the-... was included which doesn't include "azure" at all, though this is obviously Google being cheeky. Of course I could also call this somewhat sinister, as Google is basically saying I should ditch a direct competitor to their services and instead use a self-hosted service. Or maybe I'm projecting since I would like to ditch Azure DevOps and use Jenkins, but in any case there's an example. Feel free to play with it: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&biw=1396&bih=686&ei=JbGTXIfPMsv9-gTdlbroCQ&q=%22azure%22+devops+agent+%22checkout%22+%22freeze%22&oq=%22azure%22+devops+agent+%22checkout%22+%22freeze%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71l8.0.0..79010...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.JV1CR-xncd4 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&biw=1... Of course, in this case it was a networking problem so I do have to admit that usually when Google starts ignoring what I typed it's because the answer to the question is something else entirely. Though sometimes I know exactly what I'm asking for and Google doesn't get it.

JoeSmithson 8y ago
Wow THANK YOU! I have been asking for an example of this for literally years. I think possibly what is happening here is that the index believes "azure" is on the page. Consider the second result here: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding+Secure+Shell%22+site%3Adzone.com&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB814GB814&oq=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding+Secure+Shell%22+site%3Adzone.com&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.497j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22azure%22+%22Allows+adding... (the one that starts java.dzone.com but leads to the same article). It appears to have captured at index time a phrase "Microservices and Serverless on Azure" that is no longer in the artcile (possibly a link to another article). Perhaps a Googler can explain exactly what is happening.

reaperducer 8y ago

Can you provide an example of this? People always say this, but never provide the query. Because anyone who's used Google in the last 10 years knows that Google tailors its results to what it thinks you want to see. So a search query that fails for one HN reader may work for another, or at least work differently. A repeated frustration in my life has been explaining to bosses that the search results that appear on their personal phone are not the same as what will appear on a client's computer.