4 ms·

Search relevance loosely refers to whether a query returns relevant results. There are different ways of measuring this, none of which is really bulletproof.

by antics 13y ago

notastartup 13y ago
say one types 'sex' into a search engine from that query how does one know user's true intent? Is he looking for a wikipedia article? is he looking to hook up? is he looking for porn? is he referring to the gender? is he just bored and trolling? since google's reach is part of our lives, wouldn't they have a very good idea based on your previous history, what you clicked on, what search results you clicked on, what you typed in google chrome. couldn't microsoft have pulled off the same thing?
- antics 13y ago
  You don't know for sure what a user means by a query. You can make informed guesses. Typical tricks include looking at what users in the same area have searched for, looking at previous queries (turns out a lot of searches are repeated), looking for "replaceable results" (results that appear on multiple pages), and so on. And no MS could not have pulled off the same thing. The data MS has about you is not even close to the data GOogle has on you.
  - lazyjones 13y ago
    > The data MS has about you is not even close to the data GOogle has on you. Also, users have adapted and are trained to work with Google nowdays, they memorize how to find particular results on Google (even though Google puts a lot of effort into breaking features like "link:...").
- hahainternet 13y ago
  Interestingly enough my topic result (search history turned off, but signed in to a Google account) was www.funnyordie.com/topic/sex‎ I've never cared about funnyordie, didn't even realise it still existed. Wonder how they picked that, or if other users results differ.
  - notastartup 13y ago
    that is my top result as well, and I haven't been on funnyordie since it stopped being funny around 2008, possibly earlier.
thrownaway2424 13y ago
At Google there is an internal metric that always shows Google search quality leading Bing's. That's fine, but I always wondered if Bing has the same internal search quality metrics and they are always ahead?

Search relevance loosely refers to whether a query returns relevant results. There are different ways of measuring this, none of which is really bulletproof.

by antics 13y ago

Search relevance loosely refers to whether a query returns relevant results. There are different ways of measuring this, none of which is really bulletproof.

notastartup 13y ago

say one types 'sex' into a search engine from that query how does one know user's true intent? Is he looking for a wikipedia article? is he looking to hook up? is he looking for porn? is he referring to the gender? is he just bored and trolling? since google's reach is part of our lives, wouldn't they have a very good idea based on your previous history, what you clicked on, what search results you clicked on, what you typed in google chrome. couldn't microsoft have pulled off the same thing?

antics 13y ago
You don't know for sure what a user means by a query. You can make informed guesses. Typical tricks include looking at what users in the same area have searched for, looking at previous queries (turns out a lot of searches are repeated), looking for "replaceable results" (results that appear on multiple pages), and so on. And no MS could not have pulled off the same thing. The data MS has about you is not even close to the data GOogle has on you.
- lazyjones 13y ago
  > The data MS has about you is not even close to the data GOogle has on you. Also, users have adapted and are trained to work with Google nowdays, they memorize how to find particular results on Google (even though Google puts a lot of effort into breaking features like "link:...").
hahainternet 13y ago
Interestingly enough my topic result (search history turned off, but signed in to a Google account) was www.funnyordie.com/topic/sex‎ I've never cared about funnyordie, didn't even realise it still existed. Wonder how they picked that, or if other users results differ.
- notastartup 13y ago
  that is my top result as well, and I haven't been on funnyordie since it stopped being funny around 2008, possibly earlier.

thrownaway2424 13y ago

At Google there is an internal metric that always shows Google search quality leading Bing's. That's fine, but I always wondered if Bing has the same internal search quality metrics and they are always ahead?