8 ms·

> If you put a word or a phrase in quotes, we will only find things that have that exact word or phrase. I'm sorry to tell you, but this is flat wrong. I comme

by vdqtp3 5y ago

> If you put a word or a phrase in quotes, we will only find things that have that exact word or phrase. I'm sorry to tell you, but this is flat wrong. I commented[1] about this a few months back with a random phrase as an example. I see it often in my day to day also. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29424094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29424094

Thorrez 5y ago
I searched for "eggzackly this" and all 10 results on the first page contain the phrase, although most have punctuation in the middle. Looking at all 22 results (without opening the "omitted results" section or image results), the phrase became harder to find off the first page, but I tended to find it in the source code, or the DOM, or the cached version of the page, or by disabling JS (sometimes requiring a combination of those techniques). I found it in 21 out of the 22. The one page I couldn't find it in (the dolls one) looks like a frequently updating page, and it was highlighted in the snippet, so it looks like it was there at the time of crawling but not now; the cache isn't there for that page. Full disclosure I work at Google, but not on Search.
dannysullivan 5y ago
Punctuation matters. I explained this in another response, and I should have mentioned it as part of my response here. But to repeat, these are typical reasons why it might seem that quoted search isn't matching when it is: 1) text appears in ALT text 2) text is not readily visible on a page (maybe in a menu bar or small text) 3) there's punctuation ("dog cat" will match "dog, cat" 4) page has changed after we've indexed it (so view the cached copy, if available) In the [eggzackly this], you found matches of those words separated by punctuation -- which we interpret as a space, so the phrase is matched. I wish we'd fix the situation with punctuation. I get that's confusing. But that's not a new change; quotes have operated that way for ages.
alickz 5y ago
The article has been updated with a response from Danny Sullivan, the person you're responding to, which is worth a read. I just tested "eggzackly this" and every result on the first page contains the string "eggzackly this", albeit usually with different punctuation ("Eggzackly. This [...]", "Eggzackly, this.", "Eggzackly! This [...]")

by vdqtp3 5y ago

Thorrez 5y ago

I searched for "eggzackly this" and all 10 results on the first page contain the phrase, although most have punctuation in the middle. Looking at all 22 results (without opening the "omitted results" section or image results), the phrase became harder to find off the first page, but I tended to find it in the source code, or the DOM, or the cached version of the page, or by disabling JS (sometimes requiring a combination of those techniques). I found it in 21 out of the 22. The one page I couldn't find it in (the dolls one) looks like a frequently updating page, and it was highlighted in the snippet, so it looks like it was there at the time of crawling but not now; the cache isn't there for that page. Full disclosure I work at Google, but not on Search.

dannysullivan 5y ago

Punctuation matters. I explained this in another response, and I should have mentioned it as part of my response here. But to repeat, these are typical reasons why it might seem that quoted search isn't matching when it is: 1) text appears in ALT text 2) text is not readily visible on a page (maybe in a menu bar or small text) 3) there's punctuation ("dog cat" will match "dog, cat" 4) page has changed after we've indexed it (so view the cached copy, if available) In the [eggzackly this], you found matches of those words separated by punctuation -- which we interpret as a space, so the phrase is matched. I wish we'd fix the situation with punctuation. I get that's confusing. But that's not a new change; quotes have operated that way for ages.

alickz 5y ago

The article has been updated with a response from Danny Sullivan, the person you're responding to, which is worth a read. I just tested "eggzackly this" and every result on the first page contains the string "eggzackly this", albeit usually with different punctuation ("Eggzackly. This [...]", "Eggzackly, this.", "Eggzackly! This [...]")