3 ms·

With sincere respect to the author, I stopped reading the article. Even though I found the topic interesting and am definitely inclined to believe that Google's

With sincere respect to the author, I stopped reading the article. Even though I found the topic interesting and am definitely inclined to believe that Google's search results are declining in quality, I felt that the search terms and criticisms were distractingly unfair. If someone were evaluating hammers and handed a bunch of hammers to beginners and judged the hammers by those results, I'd tune out there, too, for the same reason. A suggestion for improvement would be to have the users RTFM (read the fine manual) first, and then take a reading a week later on their everyday search results. Google is a tool, like an other. Know your tools. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en And: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 Always put a quote around "exact search" terms that must be grouped together, especially if the term includes something common like the letter b. Indeed `databricks "series b" valuation` does a lot better: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=databricks%20%22series%20b%22%20valuation https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=databricks%20%22series... The 4th result is exactly about Databrick's series B valuation. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/databricks-series-b--f0c822da https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/databricks-series-b... Always search for a multi-word proper name, especially a common name like tim lee, with quotes. Put "tim lee" into quotes, and wikipedia shows up on the first page: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22tim%20lee%22%20vlogger%20age https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22tim%20lee%22%20vlog... Is vlogger really a common search term? Personally, I'm okay with Google suggesting blogger because I don't think vlogger is all that common. But maybe? Perhaps a better search term would yield better results? In fact, "tim lee blogger age" gives better results than with vlogger! Google was correct to suggest that change. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tim%20lee%20blogger%20age https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tim%20lee%20blogger%20... Anyway, this kind of criticism works best for me when the critic gives the subject the most reasonably charitable chance and then talks about the bad. Expecting great results out of bad search terms isn't reasonable, in my opinion.

TrailMixRaisin 5y ago
I understand your point but I find it reasonable to expect google to do some of this stuff on its own by now. I assume that only a small portion of its users know how to use "advanced" searches such as using quotes or ~ etc. In the same way that google uses search completion, they could try to group important parts together. But I agree with you that the example search strings seems somewhat fabricated or at least especially selected to produce bad results. In my experience the best way to get good results is to use as little relevant search strings as possible. "databricks series b" has the right answer at position 1.
- rendall 5y ago
  > I assume that only a small portion of its users know how to use "advanced" searches such as using quotes or ~ etc That's true, and I'm not doubling down here when I say: I tune out when I'm watching a horror movie, and the characters behave in a way that's designed to bring themselves sorrow. As soon as the characters know they're in a horror movie but decide to split up or go down to the basement alone anyway, I stop watching. I had the same feeling reading that article.

TrailMixRaisin 5y ago

I understand your point but I find it reasonable to expect google to do some of this stuff on its own by now. I assume that only a small portion of its users know how to use "advanced" searches such as using quotes or ~ etc. In the same way that google uses search completion, they could try to group important parts together. But I agree with you that the example search strings seems somewhat fabricated or at least especially selected to produce bad results. In my experience the best way to get good results is to use as little relevant search strings as possible. "databricks series b" has the right answer at position 1.

rendall 5y ago
> I assume that only a small portion of its users know how to use "advanced" searches such as using quotes or ~ etc That's true, and I'm not doubling down here when I say: I tune out when I'm watching a horror movie, and the characters behave in a way that's designed to bring themselves sorrow. As soon as the characters know they're in a horror movie but decide to split up or go down to the basement alone anyway, I stop watching. I had the same feeling reading that article.