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'Google fu' is a myth - it's just to make us feel good. Google ignores pretty much +"anything" it wants to. (thank god it doesn't igore site: yet) What would

'Google fu' is a myth - it's just to make us feel good. Google ignores pretty much +"anything" it wants to. (thank god it doesn't igore site: yet) What would be awesome is to have a REAL _search_ engine back, like Alta Vista - with a proper search language, and not some NLP that tries to guess what I want. Imagine being able to search a database with only keywords, vs SQL queries - thats pretty much the difference between something like Alta Vista and NLP/Google/Bing

taylodl 4y ago
I would love to have Alta Vista in 2023! I still remember when Google search first came out and it seemed like magic. Now that magic has long worn off. If it weren't for YouTube, which Google didn't even create, Google wouldn't be in my life at all. I think that's significant for a company that at one time used to be so dominant.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  What do you use nowadays for search?
  - taylodl 4y ago
    My default general search is DDG. If I'm searching for hobby-related stuff then I search Reddit, if I'm searching for work-related stuff then I search HN and SO. It seems
suddenclarity 4y ago
Maybe different definitions of Google fu? I can't recall the number of times coworkers claim to have googled something for half an hour that I manage to find on the first or second attempt. Maybe you overestimate the skill of the average Joe?
- mech422 4y ago
  I just meant that half the time google ignores what you give it...
  - valdiorn 4y ago
    Which means you need google-fu skills to know how to coerce it into doing what you actually want.
    - mech422 4y ago
      Keyword matching (when google actually honors the keywords) is hardly 'fu' ... Just look at the bad results we get from recruiters that keyword match resumes :-D
TheRealPomax 4y ago
google fu is not about + or -, it's about knowing what terms to include and what terms to omit, including sometimes not including the actual thing itself.
- mech422 4y ago
  Again, its keyword matching vs having a real query language. Alta Vista let you do things like "john near smith" and it would match "smith, john", "john, smith", etc. But it would NOT match "John had a very long conversation with smith about the problem"

taylodl 4y ago

I would love to have Alta Vista in 2023! I still remember when Google search first came out and it seemed like magic. Now that magic has long worn off. If it weren't for YouTube, which Google didn't even create, Google wouldn't be in my life at all. I think that's significant for a company that at one time used to be so dominant.

deafpolygon 4y ago
What do you use nowadays for search?
- taylodl 4y ago
  My default general search is DDG. If I'm searching for hobby-related stuff then I search Reddit, if I'm searching for work-related stuff then I search HN and SO. It seems

suddenclarity 4y ago

Maybe different definitions of Google fu? I can't recall the number of times coworkers claim to have googled something for half an hour that I manage to find on the first or second attempt. Maybe you overestimate the skill of the average Joe?

mech422 4y ago
I just meant that half the time google ignores what you give it...
- valdiorn 4y ago
  Which means you need google-fu skills to know how to coerce it into doing what you actually want.
  - mech422 4y ago
    Keyword matching (when google actually honors the keywords) is hardly 'fu' ... Just look at the bad results we get from recruiters that keyword match resumes :-D

TheRealPomax 4y ago

google fu is not about + or -, it's about knowing what terms to include and what terms to omit, including sometimes not including the actual thing itself.

mech422 4y ago
Again, its keyword matching vs having a real query language. Alta Vista let you do things like "john near smith" and it would match "smith, john", "john, smith", etc. But it would NOT match "John had a very long conversation with smith about the problem"