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One search string that really illustrated the problems with modern-day Google for me is "best things to do in hawaii". Try it and see what I mean. It's just lin

by johnfn 4y ago

One search string that really illustrated the problems with modern-day Google for me is "best things to do in hawaii". Try it and see what I mean. It's just link after link of blogspam. You get extremely long pages filled with ads and generic stock photos of Hawaii, but which are bereft of any actual content. I just want a single person's account of how they went to Hawaii and what they liked/didn't like, but it's impossible to find, even though I'm sure it's out there on the internet somehow. The best thing to google if you want an answer to this question is something like "reddit best thing to do in hawaii" which gets you actual accounts from actual real people who actually went to Hawaii and have interesting things to say about it. I tried this with metaphor.systems as well, using their prompting language - "My favorite place to go in Hawaii is:". Unfortunately, I still didn't get great results, though some of them showed some promise.

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qwoz 4y ago
With these kind of generative systems, the way you prompt is is often really important. You have to kind of talk as though you've stumbled upon someone talking about the thing you're looking for. Not quite sure what you were looking for but I seemed to have better luck with a prompt that looked like this: "I'm thinking about traveling to Hawaii next month. Does anyone have recommendations for what to do? I just came back from Hawaii and loved it. If you're going you have to check this out" https://metaphor.systems/search?q=I%27m%20thinking%20about%20traveling%20to%20Hawaii%20next%20month.%20Does%20anyone%20have%20recommendations%20for%20what%20to%20do%3F%0A%0AI%20just%20came%20back%20from%20Hawaii%20and%20loved%20it.%20If%20you%27re%20going%20you%20have%20to%20check%20this%20out https://metaphor.systems/search?q=I%27m%20thinking%20about%2...
davnn 4y ago
I believe that is not a problem with Google, or at least it would be the same problem for any large search engine. There is money to be made when your search result ranks high, thus, a lot of a useless affiliate marketers do their absolute best to rank high without providing any value. I don't believe Google is interested in promoting those useless articles, but it's a cat and mouse game. By the way, most non-technical people have never heard of Reddit.
- johnfn 4y ago
  I’m not sure exactly what you mean. If it would be a problem for all equivalently sized search engines, that just means it’s part of the problem space. The onus is on Google or any other search engine provider to weed out low quality sites.

by johnfn 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

qwoz 4y ago

With these kind of generative systems, the way you prompt is is often really important. You have to kind of talk as though you've stumbled upon someone talking about the thing you're looking for. Not quite sure what you were looking for but I seemed to have better luck with a prompt that looked like this: "I'm thinking about traveling to Hawaii next month. Does anyone have recommendations for what to do? I just came back from Hawaii and loved it. If you're going you have to check this out" https://metaphor.systems/search?q=I%27m%20thinking%20about%20traveling%20to%20Hawaii%20next%20month.%20Does%20anyone%20have%20recommendations%20for%20what%20to%20do%3F%0A%0AI%20just%20came%20back%20from%20Hawaii%20and%20loved%20it.%20If%20you%27re%20going%20you%20have%20to%20check%20this%20out https://metaphor.systems/search?q=I%27m%20thinking%20about%2...

davnn 4y ago

I believe that is not a problem with Google, or at least it would be the same problem for any large search engine. There is money to be made when your search result ranks high, thus, a lot of a useless affiliate marketers do their absolute best to rank high without providing any value. I don't believe Google is interested in promoting those useless articles, but it's a cat and mouse game. By the way, most non-technical people have never heard of Reddit.

johnfn 4y ago
I’m not sure exactly what you mean. If it would be a problem for all equivalently sized search engines, that just means it’s part of the problem space. The onus is on Google or any other search engine provider to weed out low quality sites.