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I am curious why you take the pessimistic view. Their own testing shows an improvement for at least 10% of their queries: "Google says it can now offer more re

by mankyd 7y ago

I am curious why you take the pessimistic view. Their own testing shows an improvement for at least 10% of their queries: "Google says it can now offer more relevant results for about one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English"

luckylion 7y ago
The improvements are likely for non-power users. As they make up the majority of users, it's understandable that Google optimizes for them. Still, it gives power users worse results because they know what they are looking for and they (often) use certain words for a reason. Google's default assumption ("the users have no clue what they are doing") leads them to a paternal "I think I know what you're going to ask ..." approach which often fails and leads to shit results. The method to combat that is to start wrapping every word in quotes which is annoying. I'm sure intermediate users will catch on at some point, start doing it too and Google will drop the quote modifier. Let's keep it a secret so that happens later rather than sooner.
- mankyd 7y ago
  This assumes a simplistic view of how its core search algorithm works, though. It's obvious through even some basic querying that it uses different strategies for recognizing intent based on the nature of the input: single words, addresses, arithmetic, business names, full text queries, etc. There's no reason to think that they will enact this to the detriment of other queries. It _could_ happen, but I am skeptical - optimistic even. As they mention, this improves ~10% of queries. The other 90% likely represent different forms of query input and I would hope remain unaffected.
- minwcnt5 7y ago
  Natural language is a lot more expressive than boolean expressions of keywords. Perhaps experienced searchers who use the same approach to query formulation that worked well two decades ago are no longer the true power users. Maybe they are just dinosaurs.

by mankyd 7y ago

luckylion 7y ago

The improvements are likely for non-power users. As they make up the majority of users, it's understandable that Google optimizes for them. Still, it gives power users worse results because they know what they are looking for and they (often) use certain words for a reason. Google's default assumption ("the users have no clue what they are doing") leads them to a paternal "I think I know what you're going to ask ..." approach which often fails and leads to shit results. The method to combat that is to start wrapping every word in quotes which is annoying. I'm sure intermediate users will catch on at some point, start doing it too and Google will drop the quote modifier. Let's keep it a secret so that happens later rather than sooner.

mankyd 7y ago
This assumes a simplistic view of how its core search algorithm works, though. It's obvious through even some basic querying that it uses different strategies for recognizing intent based on the nature of the input: single words, addresses, arithmetic, business names, full text queries, etc. There's no reason to think that they will enact this to the detriment of other queries. It _could_ happen, but I am skeptical - optimistic even. As they mention, this improves ~10% of queries. The other 90% likely represent different forms of query input and I would hope remain unaffected.
minwcnt5 7y ago
Natural language is a lot more expressive than boolean expressions of keywords. Perhaps experienced searchers who use the same approach to query formulation that worked well two decades ago are no longer the true power users. Maybe they are just dinosaurs.