6 ms·

Can confirm that Google doesn't honor quotes as it used to for exact match search these days. It's a hit and miss.

skinkestek 7y ago
Can someone who knows about the inside of Google tell us why this happened, and especially why it happens when verbatim mode is used alone or in addition to double quotes? I can kind of see why double quotes could be confusing for people pasting without being aware of the double quotes rule, but ignoring verbatim outright as has been the standard for years now is even more confusing to me.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  Usually when people have this concern, it's because the page they are looking for does not exist. I'd like to see examples where you do a search looking for a specific page, either with or without verbatim or double-quotes, and then find it via some other query. Sure, it happens, but it's very rare.
  - fiblye 7y ago
    >it's because the page they are looking for does not exist. I could see that argument holding water if other search engines didn't give me precisely what I searched for. Google just simply tries to be smart and assume I'm looking for something other than what I input, while completely ignoring my input and replacing it entirely.
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      Give a few examples of it. Theres a good chance whatever page you were after had a robots.txt excluding googlebot.
  - eitland 7y ago
    Would this count? https://www.google.com/search?q=%22vulnerable+over+and+over+again%22&client=firefox-b-m&prmd=ivn&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE5q_o44DnAhUy4KYKHZWBCM0QpwV6BAgLEBE&biw=414&bih=716 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22vulnerable+over+and+over+... The page it is taken from is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22032966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22032966 It is clearly indexed as it shows up in this search: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-m&biw=414&bih=716&tbs=qdr%3Ad&ei=f30cXq6dLoiFk74Pgdu42Ag&q=cable+haunt+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&oq=cable+haunt+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3...32861.38811..39806...3.0..0.173.892.14j1......0....1.9FNq9W2X6M4 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-m&biw=414&bih...
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      I think it shows up now? Yes - I think you've hit a case where fresh content isn't indexed for phrases only keywords. That latter indexing usually takes a few hours, depending on which data center you hit and load.
      - eitland 7y ago
        Ok. It shows up now and your explanation is reasonable. Thanks! I don't have more examples right now.

Can someone who knows about the inside of Google tell us why this happened, and especially why it happens when verbatim mode is used alone or in addition to double quotes? I can kind of see why double quotes could be confusing for people pasting without being aware of the double quotes rule, but ignoring verbatim outright as has been the standard for years now is even more confusing to me.

londons_explore 7y ago
Usually when people have this concern, it's because the page they are looking for does not exist. I'd like to see examples where you do a search looking for a specific page, either with or without verbatim or double-quotes, and then find it via some other query. Sure, it happens, but it's very rare.
- fiblye 7y ago
  >it's because the page they are looking for does not exist. I could see that argument holding water if other search engines didn't give me precisely what I searched for. Google just simply tries to be smart and assume I'm looking for something other than what I input, while completely ignoring my input and replacing it entirely.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    Give a few examples of it. Theres a good chance whatever page you were after had a robots.txt excluding googlebot.
- eitland 7y ago
  Would this count? https://www.google.com/search?q=%22vulnerable+over+and+over+again%22&client=firefox-b-m&prmd=ivn&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE5q_o44DnAhUy4KYKHZWBCM0QpwV6BAgLEBE&biw=414&bih=716 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22vulnerable+over+and+over+... The page it is taken from is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22032966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22032966 It is clearly indexed as it shows up in this search: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-m&biw=414&bih=716&tbs=qdr%3Ad&ei=f30cXq6dLoiFk74Pgdu42Ag&q=cable+haunt+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&oq=cable+haunt+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3...32861.38811..39806...3.0..0.173.892.14j1......0....1.9FNq9W2X6M4 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-m&biw=414&bih...
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    I think it shows up now? Yes - I think you've hit a case where fresh content isn't indexed for phrases only keywords. That latter indexing usually takes a few hours, depending on which data center you hit and load.
    - eitland 7y ago
      Ok. It shows up now and your explanation is reasonable. Thanks! I don't have more examples right now.