3 ms·
One of the reasons I go to Google is I'm trying to answer a question where I know the subject area but not the answer to the specific question. So I'm asking fo
by afandian 7y ago
One of the reasons I go to Google is I'm trying to answer a question where I know the subject area but not the answer to the specific question. So I'm asking for a combination of general concepts and a specific thing.
Entirely fictional example: "hacker news comment bold"
And seemingly every time, the specific thing is crossed out. At that point Google search is worse than useless.
I have a few hypotheses:
1) They are trying to turn it into a general directory in their continued war on DNS.
2) The web has got so big that their technology just isn't good enough anymore.
3) The users they care about are no longer people (such as technical or, per sibling comment, academic) who are trying to find specific information. They prefer to focus on mass-market.
Our strongest defence as consumers is to resist the further slide into monopoly.
- iforgotpassword 7y ago> 3) The users they care about are no longer people (such as technical or, per sibling comment, academic) who are trying to find specific information. They prefer to focus on mass-market. This is the only explanation that makes sense. The vast majority of people probably enter questions and queries in natural language so a purely keyword based search is out the window. Why a list of stop words wouldn't cover that I don't know, but let's just assume it doesn't. The second point is that most people also probably hardly ever look for precise information but ask ambiguous stuff that's just hard to properly answer with traditional approaches. So my guess is that at some point they realized that most queries are of that kind, then shortly discussed keeping two search engines in parallel and finally went with "screw those stupid devs, we're freaking Google!"
- Mauricio_ 7y agoCan you put a comment in bold in hacker news?
- afandian 7y agoIn the fictitious story, I never found out!