5 ms·

Please don't post links to (live) Google searches. It will absolutely give different results depending on the entire state of every computation everywhere, simu

by titzer 5y ago

Please don't post links to (live) Google searches. It will absolutely give different results depending on the entire state of every computation everywhere, simultaneously. In two weeks, this will return who knows what. Please take a screenshot for posterity.

BitwiseFool 5y ago
One of the things that bothers me about modern Google search results is that I can't be sure the other person I'm telling to google something will even see the same results as me. Results change over time, sure, but google can't help but try and tailor results.
- MereInterest 5y ago
  I'm similarly bothered by rolling updates of any software. If something changes, there's no version number to see what documentation is applicable. There's no way to test on a different computer to see if it's my local environment. There's no way to roll back to a previous version to see if one of them broke. I understand the advantages of A/B testing from a development side, but it makes for a miserable user experience.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
  Not even different person, Even if you search a query multiple times in a row it changes results drastically. I got a phished website of my Govt's tax website as a top result due to this[1]. W.r.t OP, I've been contemplating a search engine wall of shame[2] for a while now for recording poor search results and perhaps provide actionable feedback to the search engines. [1] https://twitter.com/Abishek_Muthian/status/1409761416865746956 https://twitter.com/Abishek_Muthian/status/14097614168657469... [2] https://needgap.com/problems/207-search-engine-wall-of-shame-search-submission https://needgap.com/problems/207-search-engine-wall-of-shame...
  - dalmo3 5y ago
    Ha, my wall of shame would be thousands of entries all from the same formula: Google [github issue] [gitmemory page for same issue scraped from github] (add inurl:github) It's insane. I can only assume Google is actively downplaying GitHub/MS. Still yields better results than bing though, go figure.
    - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
      Oh right, I always wondered how GitHub/SO scrappers make it to the top results, I thought plagiarism was SEO Don'ts 101? Maybe Google has some whitelist for programming websites due to parsing difficulties and meta nature of it. Anyways you are welcomed to submit your entries to the above search engine wall of shame thread(It's a validation platform I created), May be someone would see the value in it and create a subreddit or separate website for tracking search queries.
geofft 5y ago
You put too much faith in Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+running+invented https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+running+invented has been telling you the story of the 18th-century genius Thomas Running for years.
- spoonjim 5y ago
  LOL. I'm imagining cavemen walking briskly away from elephants and bears Olympics-style because running simply hadn't been invented yet.
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    Seems silly - not quite running, but consider that Europeans forgot how to swim efficiently and really only had the doggy paddle until they observed native Americans doing the front crawl. Basically the swimming equivalent of knowing how to jog, but not how to run or sprint. ref: https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/how-europe-learnt-swim https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/how-europe-learnt-...
    - ahmedfromtunis 5y ago
      A fascinating read. Thanks!
    - dane-pgp 5y ago
      The linked article doesn't say anything about native Americans, and in terms of substantive data it seems to jump in history from the 4th century prevalence of Roman bathhouses, to 16th century local bans on swimming, filling in the gaps (which account for the entire premise of the article) with speculation about bridges and mermaids. It immediately follows the description of those swimming bans with other 16th century examples of Tudor scholars endorsing and writing guides on swimming, resulting in an article that's an interesting read but with a poorly supported thesis.
- cyounkins 5y ago
  “Running was invented in 1784 by Thomas Running when he tried to walk twice the same time”.
easton 5y ago
For said future posterity: https://i.imgur.com/EhPpnYX.png https://i.imgur.com/EhPpnYX.png
- belter 5y ago
  Thanks easton
- arthurcolle 5y ago
  How did you dark mode-ify your Google?
  - easton 5y ago
    Bottom right of Google.com -> search options -> appearance. Or go here: https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en&fg=1#appearance https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en&fg=1#appearance
    - jumelles 5y ago
      Must be rolling out still, I see no appearance settings.
      - tkinom 5y ago
        This works for me: "Google Search Page" -> Setting (icon, upper right) -> "Dark Theme: Off/On" (Last Entry in the drop down menu)
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    I recently received this feature as well. They are probably rolling it out gradually.
    - aendruk 5y ago
      I typically browse in ephemeral sessions and Google has been flickering light and dark for a few weeks.
thewakalix 5y ago
https://archive.vn/aOXKA https://archive.vn/aOXKA
lstamour 5y ago
For future visitors after Google fixes the bug: at this time, Google gave the same response that you would expect if the query mentioned Earth’s moon instead of Mars. This is also probably true if you ask Google the same question as an “Okay, Google” search. It’s a big info box that says when the moon landing was, shows a photo of an astronaut on the moon, and so on. Edit: corrected, thanks :)
- morganvachon 5y ago
  > ...if the query mentioned Earth instead of Mars Did you mean to say "the Moon instead of Mars"?
  - sdefresne 5y ago
    I tried with "... on Earth" and got the same result as with Mars or Moon. So looks like the Google result ignores the celestial body in the query.
  - ben_w 5y ago
    Regardless of what it ought to say, I see the same effect with the destinations “earth”, “saturn”, “america”, “russia”, “newton”, “silver”, and “lego”, though the date varies from the 16th to the 20th.
- mynameisvlad 5y ago
  Pretty sure you meant the moon. I would guess he first stepped on Earth closer to his birth date (although I'm guessing his first steps were a few months after ;))
akiselev 5y ago
I don't think it matters with knowledge cards - the system is so fuzzy that it'll throw up that answer to almost anything. Apparently Louis Armstrong, the legendary jazz musician, was there with Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969 as the oldest astronaut in history, a few years before his death at the age of 69. [1] [1] https://imgur.com/a/0JyDB70 https://imgur.com/a/0JyDB70
- belter 5y ago
  [0] when did google shutdown? [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+google+shutdown%3F&ei https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+google+shutdown%3F&...
FridayoLeary 5y ago
It will return this page.
notRobot 5y ago
Screenshot for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/Jn0ARXq https://imgur.com/a/Jn0ARXq

by titzer 5y ago

BitwiseFool 5y ago

One of the things that bothers me about modern Google search results is that I can't be sure the other person I'm telling to google something will even see the same results as me. Results change over time, sure, but google can't help but try and tailor results.

MereInterest 5y ago
I'm similarly bothered by rolling updates of any software. If something changes, there's no version number to see what documentation is applicable. There's no way to test on a different computer to see if it's my local environment. There's no way to roll back to a previous version to see if one of them broke. I understand the advantages of A/B testing from a development side, but it makes for a miserable user experience.
Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
Not even different person, Even if you search a query multiple times in a row it changes results drastically. I got a phished website of my Govt's tax website as a top result due to this[1]. W.r.t OP, I've been contemplating a search engine wall of shame[2] for a while now for recording poor search results and perhaps provide actionable feedback to the search engines. [1] https://twitter.com/Abishek_Muthian/status/1409761416865746956 https://twitter.com/Abishek_Muthian/status/14097614168657469... [2] https://needgap.com/problems/207-search-engine-wall-of-shame-search-submission https://needgap.com/problems/207-search-engine-wall-of-shame...
- dalmo3 5y ago
  Ha, my wall of shame would be thousands of entries all from the same formula: Google [github issue] [gitmemory page for same issue scraped from github] (add inurl:github) It's insane. I can only assume Google is actively downplaying GitHub/MS. Still yields better results than bing though, go figure.
  - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
    Oh right, I always wondered how GitHub/SO scrappers make it to the top results, I thought plagiarism was SEO Don'ts 101? Maybe Google has some whitelist for programming websites due to parsing difficulties and meta nature of it. Anyways you are welcomed to submit your entries to the above search engine wall of shame thread(It's a validation platform I created), May be someone would see the value in it and create a subreddit or separate website for tracking search queries.

geofft 5y ago

You put too much faith in Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+running+invented https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+running+invented has been telling you the story of the 18th-century genius Thomas Running for years.

spoonjim 5y ago
LOL. I'm imagining cavemen walking briskly away from elephants and bears Olympics-style because running simply hadn't been invented yet.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Seems silly - not quite running, but consider that Europeans forgot how to swim efficiently and really only had the doggy paddle until they observed native Americans doing the front crawl. Basically the swimming equivalent of knowing how to jog, but not how to run or sprint. ref: https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/how-europe-learnt-swim https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/how-europe-learnt-...
  - ahmedfromtunis 5y ago
    A fascinating read. Thanks!
  - dane-pgp 5y ago
    The linked article doesn't say anything about native Americans, and in terms of substantive data it seems to jump in history from the 4th century prevalence of Roman bathhouses, to 16th century local bans on swimming, filling in the gaps (which account for the entire premise of the article) with speculation about bridges and mermaids. It immediately follows the description of those swimming bans with other 16th century examples of Tudor scholars endorsing and writing guides on swimming, resulting in an article that's an interesting read but with a poorly supported thesis.
cyounkins 5y ago
“Running was invented in 1784 by Thomas Running when he tried to walk twice the same time”.

easton 5y ago

For said future posterity: https://i.imgur.com/EhPpnYX.png https://i.imgur.com/EhPpnYX.png

belter 5y ago
Thanks easton
arthurcolle 5y ago
How did you dark mode-ify your Google?
- easton 5y ago
  Bottom right of Google.com -> search options -> appearance. Or go here: https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en&fg=1#appearance https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en&fg=1#appearance
  - jumelles 5y ago
    Must be rolling out still, I see no appearance settings.
    - tkinom 5y ago
      This works for me: "Google Search Page" -> Setting (icon, upper right) -> "Dark Theme: Off/On" (Last Entry in the drop down menu)
- tshaddox 5y ago
  I recently received this feature as well. They are probably rolling it out gradually.
  - aendruk 5y ago
    I typically browse in ephemeral sessions and Google has been flickering light and dark for a few weeks.

thewakalix 5y ago

https://archive.vn/aOXKA https://archive.vn/aOXKA

lstamour 5y ago

For future visitors after Google fixes the bug: at this time, Google gave the same response that you would expect if the query mentioned Earth’s moon instead of Mars. This is also probably true if you ask Google the same question as an “Okay, Google” search. It’s a big info box that says when the moon landing was, shows a photo of an astronaut on the moon, and so on. Edit: corrected, thanks :)

morganvachon 5y ago
> ...if the query mentioned Earth instead of Mars Did you mean to say "the Moon instead of Mars"?
- sdefresne 5y ago
  I tried with "... on Earth" and got the same result as with Mars or Moon. So looks like the Google result ignores the celestial body in the query.
- ben_w 5y ago
  Regardless of what it ought to say, I see the same effect with the destinations “earth”, “saturn”, “america”, “russia”, “newton”, “silver”, and “lego”, though the date varies from the 16th to the 20th.
mynameisvlad 5y ago
Pretty sure you meant the moon. I would guess he first stepped on Earth closer to his birth date (although I'm guessing his first steps were a few months after ;))

akiselev 5y ago

I don't think it matters with knowledge cards - the system is so fuzzy that it'll throw up that answer to almost anything. Apparently Louis Armstrong, the legendary jazz musician, was there with Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969 as the oldest astronaut in history, a few years before his death at the age of 69. [1] [1] https://imgur.com/a/0JyDB70 https://imgur.com/a/0JyDB70

belter 5y ago
[0] when did google shutdown? [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+google+shutdown%3F&ei https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+google+shutdown%3F&...

FridayoLeary 5y ago

It will return this page.

notRobot 5y ago

Screenshot for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/Jn0ARXq https://imgur.com/a/Jn0ARXq