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Google Memory Loss

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Re: Google Memory Loss

#301

Post by rkuska »

Larrikin wrote: post #266
colordrops wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This same AI effect can be seen in the Android keyboard, where _properly_ spelled words will be replaced after typing another word or two because it's been determined to be more likely what you want. It's infuriating.

It's all the keyboards. Swype used to work great, but now when it actually gets words right, if I have sentence with a second word that could possibly have been two similar words on the path it will just straight up replace both rendering the sentence completely incomprehensible. Who are these people that don't correct their sentences until the second incorrect word?

Speaking of virtual keyboards I always liked (and still use) the one from Blackberry and I never had such problems (you should be able to install Blackberry keyboard on any Android phone). I switched to Google Pixel from iPhone once I found out I can use Blackberry keyboard there.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#302

Post by dotancohen »

Declanomous wrote: post #101
userbinator wrote: post #93

I've noticed this many times too, particularly recently, and I call it "Google Alzheimer's" --- what was once a very powerful search engine that could give you thousands (yes, I've tried exhausting its result pages many times, and used to have much success finding the perfect site many dozens of pages deep in the results) of pages containing nothing but the exact words and phrase you search for has seemingly degraded…

> has seemingly degraded into an approximation of a search engine that has knowledge of only very superficial information, will try to rewrite your queries and omit words (including the very word that makes all the difference...) I think the biggest irony is that the web allows for more adoption of long-tail movements than ever before, and Google has gotten significantly worse at turning these up. I assume this has s…

> It seems like the web is being optimized for casual users, and using the internet is no longer as skill you can improve to create a path towards a more meaningful web experience.

No. _Google_ is being optimized for casual users, and using _Google_ is no longer a skill you can improve to create a path towards a more meaningful web experience.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#303

Post by gonzo41 »

graedus wrote: post #77
gonzo41 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to side with the big guys, but its a free service. Beggars can't be choosers. They probably dump indexes after a while for content older than x. Seems fairly reasonable actually.

You're paying with your data, same as with Facebook and many others. These extremely successful businesses are obviously able to make plenty of money using that data.

Maybe your data isn't worth what you think it is these days. Maybe they actively index what is recently used. It's cost benefit for them.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#304

Post by timcederman »

Chriky wrote: post #292
therein wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago when I interviewed for a Software Engineer position at Google, the person I was matched to eat lunch with between the interviews was from the Search team. I asked him these exact questions. He said, the last time he checked, quoting a single word to mark it mandatory worked for him and that he definitely would know if it didn't. I didn't insist much at the time but I knew he didn't know what he was talking…

Are you saying the quote-a-single-word thing doesn't work for you?

Doesn't work consistently for me.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#305

Post by danmaz74 »

greenhouse_gas wrote: post #300
propman wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The little passionate website in the 2000s used to be the best source of information if properly vetted. Now it's only big websites regurgitating the same superficial content written by paid writers who have no expertise in the subject matter. They instead just copy other superficial sources. I think this has dumbed down society because it certainly has dumbed down me. Also, complicated topics are dumbed down to 1 se…

On the other hand, from my experience: I wanted to see how Raspberry Pi assembly worked - quite a niche subject (who programs? In assembly? On a Raspberry Pi?). Yet I found quite a few blogs going through the subject - a tutorial of sorts. I was also looking up how to write an OS (just for fun) - another fairly niche field. Yet I found tons of tutorials in C, C++, and Rust. I remember trying the same in the 1990s. Na…

In my experience, it depends a lot on how much competition there is from content farms. If your niche isn't targeted by those, it's easy to find the good blogs. Otherwise, it's very difficult.

I suppose that this is a use case where ML could help a lot to recognize "content farmed + SEO optimized" content. Hopefully Google could improve the situation in the future - supposing they are trying.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#306

Post by JohnStrange »

userbinator wrote: post #93

I've noticed this many times too, particularly recently, and I call it "Google Alzheimer's" --- what was once a very powerful search engine that could give you thousands (yes, I've tried exhausting its result pages many times, and used to have much success finding the perfect site many dozens of pages deep in the results) of pages containing nothing but the exact words and phrase you search for has seemingly degraded…

Yandex is pretty good but I haven't found a use case for DDG yet. Whenever I set it for "privacy" reasons (not that I really believe them), I have to go back to Google to get reasonable results. I can confirm the memory loss, though, ego-surfing confirms it for me. Much of my older stuff is gone and all the top links for my name are related to my current work. (So in my case, it's kind of beneficial.)

Re: Google Memory Loss

#307

Post by jokermatt999 »

Declanomous wrote: post #101
userbinator wrote: post #93

I've noticed this many times too, particularly recently, and I call it "Google Alzheimer's" --- what was once a very powerful search engine that could give you thousands (yes, I've tried exhausting its result pages many times, and used to have much success finding the perfect site many dozens of pages deep in the results) of pages containing nothing but the exact words and phrase you search for has seemingly degraded…

> has seemingly degraded into an approximation of a search engine that has knowledge of only very superficial information, will try to rewrite your queries and omit words (including the very word that makes all the difference...) I think the biggest irony is that the web allows for more adoption of long-tail movements than ever before, and Google has gotten significantly worse at turning these up. I assume this has s…

I'm not sure I've got a fully formed concept here, but I'm throwing it out in case someone finds it interesting.

Re: long-tail movements and switching contexts between work and home, I wonder if a better example isn't much better user or persona management. Every person is interested in more than just one thing, and can conceivably be looking for the same word in two contexts. Down below, a multi-lingual speaker has given up on predictive keyboards.

What if we could enable users to switch personas/contexts as intuitively and easily as people code-switch in real conversations? Setting up the profiles would be messy and cumbersome at first which probably kills the idea dead in my hands. I'm not knowledgeable enough about psychology or machine learning to figure out if that could be solved automatically.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#308

Post by dx034 »

Larrikin wrote: post #266
colordrops wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This same AI effect can be seen in the Android keyboard, where _properly_ spelled words will be replaced after typing another word or two because it's been determined to be more likely what you want. It's infuriating.

It's all the keyboards. Swype used to work great, but now when it actually gets words right, if I have sentence with a second word that could possibly have been two similar words on the path it will just straight up replace both rendering the sentence completely incomprehensible. Who are these people that don't correct their sentences until the second incorrect word?

I second that. 5 years ago I could swipe a whole message blindly with no errors. Now I have to correct every second word.

I'd love a feature to disable all that deep learning and AI and just use the algorithm they originally had (proximity of where you typed to words in the dictionary). That worked so much better.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#309

Post by JohnStrange »

emilfihlman wrote: post #37
ohazi wrote: post #17

I've convinced myself that this happens in gmail / hangouts history search too. It'll very confidently tell you that here are the only six results for your search term going back to the beginning of time, but if you go and manually dig up something that you know is there from ten years ago, then all of a sudden there are seven results the next time you search for the same term. I haven't done this methodically, and I…

100% Agreed. Gmail doesn't seem to want to find stuff that is there.

Gmail also drops sent mails occasionally for no apparent reason. They don't even bounce back, they simply disappear and never reach their destination.

Re: Google Memory Loss

#310

Post by Meekro »

tobinfricke wrote: post #32

I just noticed this also, earlier today. I have a blog entry titled "Highest airports in California" that I attempted to find using Google. Even with the double quotes, and restricting the search to the correct site, it doesn't seem to come up in search results. The site's robots.txt seems permissive enough. What's up? link: https://nibot.livejournal.com/1075122.html

DuckDuckGo returns that link as the third result, though.
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