4 ms·

How can you tell whether or not this is a google search issue or an internet landscape issue?

Gracana 7y ago
By comparison to other search engines. Duckduckgo seems to give me better search results and is less influenced by advertisements and trends. What finally pushed me away from Google was its incorrect assumption of equivalence between different terms. I'd search something like "printer scaling draftsight" and it would return results with "printer" "scaling" and "autocad" all in bold. Because autocad and draftsight are 2D CAD programs, and autocad is more popular, so suuurely that's what I wanted.
- spurgu 7y ago
  > Because autocad and draftsight are 2D CAD programs, and autocad is more popular, so suuurely that's what I wanted. Yeah I've noticed this a lot in recent months/years. Have been finding myself putting most of the keywords of the query in quotation marks to get any kind of results relevant to my actual query. Like 'printer "scaling" "draftsight"' just so that G wouldn't make some stupid assumptions.
  - beerandt 7y ago
    Which has started working as good as Amazon internal search... One page of results with 8 of 10 completely unrelated.
- lostconfused 7y ago
  There is a useful edge case to this. In my case I was searching for a specific bit of content that had too few results in English so Google started returning results based on similar search terms in another language. It took a bunch of quotes and some specific strings to get into that state in the first place though.
  - beerandt 7y ago
    This is the larger problem... Google thinks it's making our search easier by force feeding us what we obviously don't want. It interprets what it thinks I meant instead of listening to the actual words that came out of my mouth. I have the same problem with my wife... :-)
    - socceroos 7y ago
      You're right; right on multiple levels...heh Language is used to convey meaning. The difference between my wife and Google is that Google tries to interpret language in the lowest common denominator which leaves all people who try to use language properly feeling like they need to learn a new one just to be understood by their search engine. ...maybe that's not so different.
- icebraining 7y ago
  https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1 https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1
- netwanderer3 7y ago
  I was not able to replicate your issues and did not notice any similar said results from my end. Have you tried searching under another account or with a different machine perhaps? Just for testing purposes.
- 0ld 7y ago
  Unfortunately, DDG has a close relationships with the kgb's outlet yandex (and trying not to mention that anywhere unless asked directly), which is absolute showstopper for me
  - lethologica 7y ago
    This is the first time I'm hearing this. Can you provide more information please?
ForHackernews 7y ago
For most intents and purposes, Google is the internet landscape. They are the dominant browser, search engine, email system, and mobile operating system.
hiram112 7y ago
Isn't that irrelevant as far as Google's usefulness is concerned? The internet is always going to be in constant flux: SEO trickery, the rise and fall of sites which contain the most relevant data, context of the search (browser -> phone), etc. Google's main job is to make it as easy as possible for a user to find what they want. For example, as a techie, 15 years ago that might have meant making sure to constantly index usenet and various mailing lists. Today most of that content is at StackExchange, Github, Reddit, etc. And it's not just tech searches - everyone will have their own niche which Google once got right and often returned as the very first result (when was the last time you were confident in using the 'lucky' result?), and now, not only do they not return relevant results, whatever they do return is mixed with tons of ads and (probably) paid results that aren't marked as ads. The fact that Google doesn't yet pay dividends while the MBAs there are apparently intent on destroying the company's main product as fast as they can, doesn't bode well for their share price going forward.
beerandt 7y ago
For some searches, it's as easy as tacking on an extra word, and seeing how different the results are. Especially true for blacklisted and censored Google searches, which for whatever reason don't seem to be wildcarded terms. Try searching for just the name of a supposed whistleblower, then add another term, and get all the censored results. Even more true in the news tab, which initially returned -0- results.
- NoodleIncident 7y ago
  If you're not going to link or at least screenshot some examples to support a claim like this, it would be better to not post at all.
  - beerandt 7y ago
    From news search on Android: https://ibb.co/fGW6Cm8 https://ibb.co/fGW6Cm8 https://ibb.co/ZmSJRwc https://ibb.co/ZmSJRwc

By comparison to other search engines. Duckduckgo seems to give me better search results and is less influenced by advertisements and trends. What finally pushed me away from Google was its incorrect assumption of equivalence between different terms. I'd search something like "printer scaling draftsight" and it would return results with "printer" "scaling" and "autocad" all in bold. Because autocad and draftsight are 2D CAD programs, and autocad is more popular, so suuurely that's what I wanted.

spurgu 7y ago
> Because autocad and draftsight are 2D CAD programs, and autocad is more popular, so suuurely that's what I wanted. Yeah I've noticed this a lot in recent months/years. Have been finding myself putting most of the keywords of the query in quotation marks to get any kind of results relevant to my actual query. Like 'printer "scaling" "draftsight"' just so that G wouldn't make some stupid assumptions.
- beerandt 7y ago
  Which has started working as good as Amazon internal search... One page of results with 8 of 10 completely unrelated.
lostconfused 7y ago
There is a useful edge case to this. In my case I was searching for a specific bit of content that had too few results in English so Google started returning results based on similar search terms in another language. It took a bunch of quotes and some specific strings to get into that state in the first place though.
- beerandt 7y ago
  This is the larger problem... Google thinks it's making our search easier by force feeding us what we obviously don't want. It interprets what it thinks I meant instead of listening to the actual words that came out of my mouth. I have the same problem with my wife... :-)
  - socceroos 7y ago
    You're right; right on multiple levels...heh Language is used to convey meaning. The difference between my wife and Google is that Google tries to interpret language in the lowest common denominator which leaves all people who try to use language properly feeling like they need to learn a new one just to be understood by their search engine. ...maybe that's not so different.
icebraining 7y ago
https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1 https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1
netwanderer3 7y ago
I was not able to replicate your issues and did not notice any similar said results from my end. Have you tried searching under another account or with a different machine perhaps? Just for testing purposes.
0ld 7y ago
Unfortunately, DDG has a close relationships with the kgb's outlet yandex (and trying not to mention that anywhere unless asked directly), which is absolute showstopper for me
- lethologica 7y ago
  This is the first time I'm hearing this. Can you provide more information please?

ForHackernews 7y ago

For most intents and purposes, Google is the internet landscape. They are the dominant browser, search engine, email system, and mobile operating system.

hiram112 7y ago

Isn't that irrelevant as far as Google's usefulness is concerned? The internet is always going to be in constant flux: SEO trickery, the rise and fall of sites which contain the most relevant data, context of the search (browser -> phone), etc. Google's main job is to make it as easy as possible for a user to find what they want. For example, as a techie, 15 years ago that might have meant making sure to constantly index usenet and various mailing lists. Today most of that content is at StackExchange, Github, Reddit, etc. And it's not just tech searches - everyone will have their own niche which Google once got right and often returned as the very first result (when was the last time you were confident in using the 'lucky' result?), and now, not only do they not return relevant results, whatever they do return is mixed with tons of ads and (probably) paid results that aren't marked as ads. The fact that Google doesn't yet pay dividends while the MBAs there are apparently intent on destroying the company's main product as fast as they can, doesn't bode well for their share price going forward.

beerandt 7y ago

For some searches, it's as easy as tacking on an extra word, and seeing how different the results are. Especially true for blacklisted and censored Google searches, which for whatever reason don't seem to be wildcarded terms. Try searching for just the name of a supposed whistleblower, then add another term, and get all the censored results. Even more true in the news tab, which initially returned -0- results.

NoodleIncident 7y ago
If you're not going to link or at least screenshot some examples to support a claim like this, it would be better to not post at all.
- beerandt 7y ago
  From news search on Android: https://ibb.co/fGW6Cm8 https://ibb.co/fGW6Cm8 https://ibb.co/ZmSJRwc https://ibb.co/ZmSJRwc