5 ms·
The internet is too different now to what Google (or any SE) was designed to index. Too much of the up-to-date high value information is posted onto semi-publi
by keyme 5y ago
The internet is too different now to what Google (or any SE) was designed to index.
Too much of the up-to-date high value information is posted onto semi-public channels. Like facebook groups, instagram posts, telegram channels, etc.
At the same time, too much of the publicly available websites are becoming clickbait and mindless marketing drivel.
Just try to research anything slightly obscure that has to be up-to-date information (from the last few years).
Like "how to get from Nairobi to Kisumu by bus". Google maps doesn't have this (not surprisingly), but what about the SERPs? Nothing there. 90% of the results are useless bus ticket sale websites that have no info, just SEO. (You can't buy this ticket online anyway).
Is Kenya just such an off-the-map destination that no backpacker has ever written about taking this route? No!
The information is out there. You'll find it inside the related facebook groups for travelers in east Africa. And if not? That's where you'll ask. But the answer? It'll never reach a SERP in the future.
Even more sad, is that if you keep looking on Google, you may find buried results from years ago. From travel forums and such. What's sad is that the info will be 10 years old, since no one uses public forums anymore. (Unless it's on reddit, pretty much the last public forum with any reach).
- arrakis2021 5y agoThis. Whenever I search anything informative, I append “Reddit” to the phrase to get the top Reddit threads about the topic. Everything else in the SERPS is usually SEO trash
- chx 5y agoTry https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hypersearch/feojagelicdlhnmldaiplbppfbolnnag?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hypersearch/feojag... then.
- tmh88j 5y agoIs there a way to provide a date range when specifying a site? I frequently append reddit to my google searches as well, but the results often include outdated posts. I don't want restaurant/service/whatever reviews from 7+ years ago.
- jonas21 5y agoPress "Tools", then change "Any time" to "Custom range" and set the range you want.
- tmh88j 5y agoI've tried that but the filter seems inconsistent. I can specify a date range and get some focused results, but if I remove the date filter and search the same terms I often receive additional results that weren't previously displayed but are within the range I used.
- aghilmort 5y agoafter:YYYY-MM-DD & before:YYYY-MM-DD work on Breeze, Google, & some others, e.g., - recent March Madness results; thread of examples, https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1506826439961858052 https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1506826439961858052 - hot-off-the-press startup funding, https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1504901028520640514 https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1504901028520640514 - new free trip contest announcements w/ query breakdown, https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1506443371828686848 https://twitter.com/DotDotJames/status/1506443371828686848 after: & before: cover many use cases, and can be used in any combo before X date, before:2022-01-01 range of X to Y dates, after:2022-01-01 before:2022-02-01 multiple ranges, easiest to split up queries since X date, after:2022-03-14 & per OP question, can be used with site, e.g., after:2020-12-31 before:2022-01-01 site:news.ycombinator.com intitle:search all posts w/ search in title during 2021 on HN https://breezethat.com/?q=after%3A2020-12-31+before%3A2022-01-01+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+intitle%3Asearch https://breezethat.com/?q=after%3A2020-12-31+before%3A2022-0... or after:2020-12-31 before:2022-01-01 site:reddit.com intitle:russia intitle:ukraine all posts on Reddit during 2021 w/ Russia & Ukraine in title https://breezethat.com/?q=after%3A2020-12-31+before%3A2022-01-01+site%3Areddit.com+intitle%3Arussia+intitle%3Aukraine https://breezethat.com/?q=after%3A2020-12-31+before%3A2022-0... (all posts with search in title during 2021 on HN) there's also some more advanced techniques, post on that forthcoming
- vmception 5y agoSomewhat related is how there is a whole generation of people that think they are entitled to finding information on a search engine, or a web indexed accessible source, and if its not there then it must not exist! I see this in discussions a lot where many times the answer is that the data doesn't exist, but thats not satisfactory to the person making the challenging.
- chiefalchemist 5y agoAnecdotally, I'm in a couple+ tech (ish) groups on FB. More and more the questions posted are obviously by passing internet search (e.g.,Google) and going right to the group. Simple shit that people simply can't be bothered to search for, and they don't even bother with the FB group search. Imho, this behaviour wastes too much of the groups' collective bandwidth. So not only has FB hoarded the infomation, but it has no incentive to fix the group experience (e.g., prompt an input for group search during the asking bit) as it keeps engagement up.
- hotpotamus 5y agoI mean, this is the state of the world currently. I doubt I'd be able to do my job without some sort of search engine. I do talk to people in my company who worked in tech before the internet and they mention going to bookstores and reading books and how weird that seems now even to they who lived through it.
- technobabbler 5y agoYou know, if that were the only roadblock, I wish someone would take the top 10,000 Google queries and just manually curate them. Hire different interest groups -- outdoors, travel, cuisine, etc. -- and manually find the best hits buried deep in some subreddit. No fancy algorithms, just old-fashioned librarian-style research, but constantly updated with the latest findings and queries. Would happily pay for that... even if it only has 5% of the coverage of Google, that's fine because Google is like 95% noise anyway.
- jonshariat 5y ago+1 I see this repeated over and over in tech where an algo is great but why not manually craft the top value queries? Like with smart speakers, why not manually add a bunch of interactions? You can do it yourself in settings by adding a phrase and desired response, why not have the team adding a bunch they would want?
- Sujan 5y agoThe top 10.000 queries at Google are probably 99% brands, pop culture or current news things, one word or name only, that you would not care for at all. Have a look at the top 20: https://www.statista.com/statistics/265825/number-of-searches-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/265825/number-of-searche...
- achr2 5y agoI think there is an easy exclusion to be made for these types of 'too lazy to type a url' type searches (or 'weather' which is similar in getting a specific piece of data).
- heavenlyblue 5y agoI remember one of the top queries we worked at one company with was the number of the US form to fill your taxes
- jasode 5y ago>, I wish someone would take the top 10,000 Google queries and just manually curate them. Hire different interest groups -- outdoors, travel, cuisine, etc. -- and manually find the best hits buried deep in some subreddit. No fancy algorithms, just old-fashioned librarian-style research, but constantly updated with the latest findings and queries. It's not exactly your specifications but 2007 Mahalo attempted something like that and they shut down after a few years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalo.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalo.com The website is no longer there so you have to use Wayback Machine or image search to see what the landing page for Mahalo search UI looked like : https://www.google.com/search?q=%22mahalo.com%22+search&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=%22mahalo.com%22+search&tbm=...
- polote 5y ago> It'll never reach a SERP in the future. Why not ? A scrapper may not be able to find it, but we all have a Facebook account. You dont need an automated scrapper to create a search engine. Info can be manually curated or scrapped through web extensions
- majewsky 5y ago> but we all have a Facebook account God no.
- oakpond 5y ago> but we all have a Facebook account. Nah.
- rcshubhadeep 5y agoI don't have a fb account. I am very happy about that :)
- khazhoux 5y agoEither Google engineers reacted to your hour-old post, or you picked an example where Google actually does well. The top-of-page "featured snippet": > Kenya Airways and Jambojet Limited fly from Nairobi to Kisumu every 4 hours. Alternatively, The Guardian Coach operates a bus from Nairobi to Kisumu every 3 hours. Tickets cost $6 - $11 and the journey takes 6h 30m. Two other operators also service this route. Then the rest of the page links to route-planning websites, a Tripadvisor discussion about bus from Nairobi, and other actually relevant results. Google disappoints me too, but TBH I can't objectively gauge how good it is. My own opinion is just based on spotty personal experiences that I don't keep track of.
- keyme 5y agoYou are actually right :) Stupid me. But other similar searches have failed me in the past.
- 8bitsrule 5y agoYour Nairobi question results in the top answer today on [https://millionshort.com/ https://millionshort.com/] It has some info, not sure how useful.
- narrator 5y agoYandex gives good results on the first page[1] with tripadvisor and other community sites. Google I think got majorly messed up when they started doing "anti-misinformation" patches that down ranked forums and other community sites where people can freely post wrongthink. Yandex doesn't do any of that. [1]https://yandex.com/search/touch/?text=how+to+get+from+Nairobi+to+Kisumu+by+bus&mda=0&lr=110134 https://yandex.com/search/touch/?text=how+to+get+from+Nairob...