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They definitely do not return "90% garbage for most queries". This 8s an unsubstantiated claim I see often i HN and honestly not backed by any real data. e.g. Y

by mda 4y ago

They definitely do not return "90% garbage for most queries". This 8s an unsubstantiated claim I see often i HN and honestly not backed by any real data. e.g. You can check your search history and see it yourself.

p-e-w 4y ago
I just tried searching for "python str" on Google. I expected the top result to be a link to the official Python docs for the `str` type, then ideally some relevant StackOverflow questions highlighting common Python issues with strings, bytes, Unicode etc. Instead, the top result was W3Schools. Then came the Python docs, then 5 pages somewhere between blogspam and poor-quality tutorials. Then a ReadTheDocs page dating to 2015. And that was it. No more official Python resources, no StackOverflow. In the middle of the results some worthless "Google Q&A" dropdowns that lead to more garbage quality content. So for this query, using my definition of "garbage", the "garbage percentage" is somewhere between 80% and 90+%, depending on how many Q&A dropdowns you waste your time opening.
- jwilk 4y ago
  For me, https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html is the top result.
  - p-e-w 4y ago
    The fact that the ranking of results for queries that have nothing to do with location-based services depends on where you are located (and, possibly, on whether or not you are logged in) is one of the worst things about Google. And the fact that you can't seem to disable that behavior is even worse.
- goldsteinq 4y ago
  I just tried searching for “python str” on searchhut and the top result is Postgres docs, then Wikipedia article for empty strings and then Drew’s blog. Official Python docs isn’t in the index at all.
  - jwilk 4y ago
    For me the second hit is: https://docs.python.org/3/howto/clinic.html https://docs.python.org/3/howto/clinic.html So at least some official Python docs are indexed.
- mda 4y ago
  Afaik Python does not have a str type (I think you meant string?). You could instead search for "python string" to find more information about python strings. Even then the very first result for Python str is actually relevant for me (Python documentation about built in types.
  - jwilk 4y ago
    > Afaik Python does not have a str type It does have it: $ python3 -c 'print(type(""))' <class 'str'>

by mda 4y ago

p-e-w 4y ago

I just tried searching for "python str" on Google. I expected the top result to be a link to the official Python docs for the `str` type, then ideally some relevant StackOverflow questions highlighting common Python issues with strings, bytes, Unicode etc. Instead, the top result was W3Schools. Then came the Python docs, then 5 pages somewhere between blogspam and poor-quality tutorials. Then a ReadTheDocs page dating to 2015. And that was it. No more official Python resources, no StackOverflow. In the middle of the results some worthless "Google Q&A" dropdowns that lead to more garbage quality content. So for this query, using my definition of "garbage", the "garbage percentage" is somewhere between 80% and 90+%, depending on how many Q&A dropdowns you waste your time opening.

jwilk 4y ago
For me, https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html is the top result.
- p-e-w 4y ago
  The fact that the ranking of results for queries that have nothing to do with location-based services depends on where you are located (and, possibly, on whether or not you are logged in) is one of the worst things about Google. And the fact that you can't seem to disable that behavior is even worse.
goldsteinq 4y ago
I just tried searching for “python str” on searchhut and the top result is Postgres docs, then Wikipedia article for empty strings and then Drew’s blog. Official Python docs isn’t in the index at all.
- jwilk 4y ago
  For me the second hit is: https://docs.python.org/3/howto/clinic.html https://docs.python.org/3/howto/clinic.html So at least some official Python docs are indexed.
mda 4y ago
Afaik Python does not have a str type (I think you meant string?). You could instead search for "python string" to find more information about python strings. Even then the very first result for Python str is actually relevant for me (Python documentation about built in types.
- jwilk 4y ago
  > Afaik Python does not have a str type It does have it: $ python3 -c 'print(type(""))' <class 'str'>