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Off-topic: I am immensely happy with latest google update, because now if I search for something that is too obscure, google simply shows me an empty page with

by n_ary 3y ago

Off-topic: I am immensely happy with latest google update, because now if I search for something that is too obscure, google simply shows me an empty page with no results found, which tells me that I need to refine my search query. Previously, if such thing happened, I'd get a list of spam sites which does not include the query at all, or simply uses the query somewhere not visible on the page.

logicchains 3y ago
I feel the opposite. Often I'm searching some obscure error message or function name from an open source project; I'd expect Google to at the very least provide a result linking to the Github page where the thing is defined, but nope, nothing. Bing on the other hand gives me exactly what I'm looking for in the first few results.
- stefan_ 3y ago
  This has been my experience. Google can now not even find substrings from source code found in thousands of GitHub repos. It's rapidly getting useless for programming.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Google doesn't seem to index all of github, which is very frustrating when looking for code strings or error messages that you know are included in some opensource project.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
I'd be with you here, if not that I've long learned to associate an empty results page with the search engine timeouting or otherwise breaking. Refreshing the page would usually fix it.
michaeljhg 3y ago
Used to be able to just use quotes to find exact matches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30130535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30130535
- b112 3y ago
  That was always a lie. Always. Exact quotes were often disregarded, and even sometimes still aliased. What exists for precision is "verbatim", which was added after some bonehead a Google decided that the + operator, such as +needthisprecisely, was conflicting with "Google Plus" searches. So they deprecated the + operator, and started blathering on about how quotes did "the same thing", which it never did, and never has! If you want terms to appear as typed, the closest thing to the old + is "verbatim" under "tools" after a search. Verbatim was added back in, after people howled at the loss of the + operator. Note the + referenced: https://web.archive.org/web/20040202021515/http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html#domain https://web.archive.org/web/20040202021515/http://www.google... You can see that in 2004, Google never aliased terms, the ~ operator was for that. (Everyone used + for "always include this", for any needed word, for almost 15 years before Google removed it.)
  - is_true 3y ago
    now that google+ is long gone they could reinstate the + modifier

by n_ary 3y ago

logicchains 3y ago

I feel the opposite. Often I'm searching some obscure error message or function name from an open source project; I'd expect Google to at the very least provide a result linking to the Github page where the thing is defined, but nope, nothing. Bing on the other hand gives me exactly what I'm looking for in the first few results.

stefan_ 3y ago
This has been my experience. Google can now not even find substrings from source code found in thousands of GitHub repos. It's rapidly getting useless for programming.
londons_explore 3y ago
Google doesn't seem to index all of github, which is very frustrating when looking for code strings or error messages that you know are included in some opensource project.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

I'd be with you here, if not that I've long learned to associate an empty results page with the search engine timeouting or otherwise breaking. Refreshing the page would usually fix it.

michaeljhg 3y ago

Used to be able to just use quotes to find exact matches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30130535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30130535

b112 3y ago
That was always a lie. Always. Exact quotes were often disregarded, and even sometimes still aliased. What exists for precision is "verbatim", which was added after some bonehead a Google decided that the + operator, such as +needthisprecisely, was conflicting with "Google Plus" searches. So they deprecated the + operator, and started blathering on about how quotes did "the same thing", which it never did, and never has! If you want terms to appear as typed, the closest thing to the old + is "verbatim" under "tools" after a search. Verbatim was added back in, after people howled at the loss of the + operator. Note the + referenced: https://web.archive.org/web/20040202021515/http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html#domain https://web.archive.org/web/20040202021515/http://www.google... You can see that in 2004, Google never aliased terms, the ~ operator was for that. (Everyone used + for "always include this", for any needed word, for almost 15 years before Google removed it.)
- is_true 3y ago
  now that google+ is long gone they could reinstate the + modifier