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You know how google search results can get really useless just a few pages in? And it says it found something crazy like 880,000 results? Imagine randomizing th

You know how google search results can get really useless just a few pages in? And it says it found something crazy like 880,000 results? Imagine randomizing that. --- Unrelated I searched for "Penguin exhibits in Michigan". Of which we have several. It reports 880,000 results but I can only go to page 12 (after telling it to show omitted results). Interesting... https://www.google.com/search?q=penguin+exhibits+in+michigan https://www.google.com/search?q=penguin+exhibits+in+michigan

Theodores 7y ago
If you think of it as like an old fashioned library or an old fashioned Blockbuster video store. Sure you could read any book ever printed in the English language in the local library. They might have to get it in from the national collection or the big library in the city. But you ain't going to see every book in the local library. There is more than you could wish for and you will never read every book in the local library. But all the classics are there, the talked about new books are there (or out on loan, back soon). All the reference books that school kids are there, there is enough to get you started in any hobby. Google search results are like that. Those 880,000 'titles' are a bit like the Library of Congress boasting how big it is, it is just a number. All they have really got for you is a small selection that is good enough for 99% of people 99% of the time. Only new stuff by people with Page rank (books with publishers) get indexed now and put into the 'main collection'. Much like how public libraries do have book sales, Google do let a lot of the 880,000 results drop off. It's a ruse!
cruano 7y ago
I heard that they also filter results by some undisclosed parameters, like they don't show you anything that hasn't been modified in the last ~10 years, no matter how hard you try
- dublin 7y ago
  Yeah, this is a real problem for research into older things that have no need to change. Google seems to think that information has a half-life. That's really only true in the social space. Truth is eternal.

Theodores 7y ago

If you think of it as like an old fashioned library or an old fashioned Blockbuster video store. Sure you could read any book ever printed in the English language in the local library. They might have to get it in from the national collection or the big library in the city. But you ain't going to see every book in the local library. There is more than you could wish for and you will never read every book in the local library. But all the classics are there, the talked about new books are there (or out on loan, back soon). All the reference books that school kids are there, there is enough to get you started in any hobby. Google search results are like that. Those 880,000 'titles' are a bit like the Library of Congress boasting how big it is, it is just a number. All they have really got for you is a small selection that is good enough for 99% of people 99% of the time. Only new stuff by people with Page rank (books with publishers) get indexed now and put into the 'main collection'. Much like how public libraries do have book sales, Google do let a lot of the 880,000 results drop off. It's a ruse!

cruano 7y ago

I heard that they also filter results by some undisclosed parameters, like they don't show you anything that hasn't been modified in the last ~10 years, no matter how hard you try

dublin 7y ago
Yeah, this is a real problem for research into older things that have no need to change. Google seems to think that information has a half-life. That's really only true in the social space. Truth is eternal.