21 ms·

I've found that quoting single words doesn't even do anything anymore. Quoting phrases still usually keeps them together, although does not always work.

by SamBam 3y ago

Thorrez 3y ago
Do you have an example where quoting doesn't work? I've seen this conversation many times on HN, and the conclusion is always that quoting works, but not in the way many people expect, because it searches text hidden in the DOM and source code, and ignores punctuation and HTML/DOM boundaries. Disclosure: I work at Google but not on search.
- SamBam 3y ago
  I looked back in my history and found one from just last week: https://www.google.com/search?q=wevideo+%22masking%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=wevideo+%22masking%22 The top hits do not include the word "masking" in then as far as I can see (although I'm in Mobile right now so can't check the DOM).
  - Thorrez 3y ago
    In the DOM (not the HTML returned by the initial request) of the page, I see <yt-smartimation class="smartimation smartimation--enable-masking"> It does seem odd to me to be searching the class names of DOM elements. I'm not sure if that's intended or a bug, or a red herring and the page is found for some other reason. Testing more, searching for 'wevideo "smartimation"', 'wevideo "enable-masking"', 'wevideo "enable masking"', 'wevideo "enable-masking"', 'wevideo "enablemasking"', all return no results. That seems to indicate Google isn't searching class names. However, it's possible it is searching them but due to some algorithm decided to index on "masking" but not index on the other parts. Maybe another possibility is during crawling there was a recommended video in the sidebar with "masking" in the title. I don't really know how the crawler and indexer works though, if it pays attention to those. Maybe another possibility is I'm wrong, and for video results Google does ignore quotes.
d--b 3y ago
You have to use Tools/Verbatim
- qingcharles 3y ago
  This is the answer. Thank you kind user. I almost daily pop down the Tools menu to change the date. Never once had I noticed this other feature there.
SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
It'll even suggest "must include" if it's not finding many things with one of the phrase elements and quote it for you, so you'll do that and it still won't help. I often find this with phone numbers.
- tambourine_man 3y ago
  I find it borderline disrespectful that it strikes and disregards a word I purposely typed in the search field. It’s as if you ask for a coke and the bartender suggests that perhaps an orange juice would be more of your liking.

I've found that quoting single words doesn't even do anything anymore. Quoting phrases still usually keeps them together, although does not always work.

by SamBam 3y ago

I've found that quoting single words doesn't even do anything anymore. Quoting phrases still usually keeps them together, although does not always work.

Thorrez 3y ago

Do you have an example where quoting doesn't work? I've seen this conversation many times on HN, and the conclusion is always that quoting works, but not in the way many people expect, because it searches text hidden in the DOM and source code, and ignores punctuation and HTML/DOM boundaries. Disclosure: I work at Google but not on search.

SamBam 3y ago
I looked back in my history and found one from just last week: https://www.google.com/search?q=wevideo+%22masking%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=wevideo+%22masking%22 The top hits do not include the word "masking" in then as far as I can see (although I'm in Mobile right now so can't check the DOM).
- Thorrez 3y ago
  In the DOM (not the HTML returned by the initial request) of the page, I see <yt-smartimation class="smartimation smartimation--enable-masking"> It does seem odd to me to be searching the class names of DOM elements. I'm not sure if that's intended or a bug, or a red herring and the page is found for some other reason. Testing more, searching for 'wevideo "smartimation"', 'wevideo "enable-masking"', 'wevideo "enable masking"', 'wevideo "enable-masking"', 'wevideo "enablemasking"', all return no results. That seems to indicate Google isn't searching class names. However, it's possible it is searching them but due to some algorithm decided to index on "masking" but not index on the other parts. Maybe another possibility is during crawling there was a recommended video in the sidebar with "masking" in the title. I don't really know how the crawler and indexer works though, if it pays attention to those. Maybe another possibility is I'm wrong, and for video results Google does ignore quotes.

d--b 3y ago

You have to use Tools/Verbatim

qingcharles 3y ago
This is the answer. Thank you kind user. I almost daily pop down the Tools menu to change the date. Never once had I noticed this other feature there.

SketchySeaBeast 3y ago

It'll even suggest "must include" if it's not finding many things with one of the phrase elements and quote it for you, so you'll do that and it still won't help. I often find this with phone numbers.

tambourine_man 3y ago
I find it borderline disrespectful that it strikes and disregards a word I purposely typed in the search field. It’s as if you ask for a coke and the bartender suggests that perhaps an orange juice would be more of your liking.