DDG does much better with quotes for required/exact matches.
Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#32This (shitty NLP) has been bad for a while, but I did notice it get worse recently in a way that feels crippling to me. I don't have a functional search engine anymore.
Does anyone have insight into _why_ google search has deteriorated so rapidly over the last ~6-12 months? Optimizing for NLP or websites learning SEO don't seem like they would have this big of an impact. Everyone seems to agree [0] [1] [2] that this is a problem yet it keeps getting worse https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27379083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29794372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=…
The voice recognition has gone to shit as well, to the point where it may as well be editorializing. Apparently I'm not allowed to begin a sentence with the word "our" because no matter what pronunciation I use it becomes "how". I just don't get it. I learned my "computer voice" talking to garbage voice command systems in the early 2000s that insisted on crystal-clear speech and had absolutely no issues with Apple or Google voice typing until probably 2018. Since then it's a been a steady decline into near-unusability. I dare anyone to successfully get Google to voice-type the word "o'clock".
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#33I agree with your general point that the search quality has gone down, quotes doesn't even always work anymore to get exact results. Looking into your suggested example: That turned out to be interesting and unexpected. So, the exact string you put here was "David, we have been expecting you - this is what you have been searching for - this place, David, is where dreams are born", which is what you get when you copy…
Can someone confirm if it's also broken then for bits of text that are wrapped in inline elements? I don't have a suitable example to try to search for off hand, but for example:
this is the best day of my life
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#34I agree with your general point that the search quality has gone down, quotes doesn't even always work anymore to get exact results. Looking into your suggested example: That turned out to be interesting and unexpected. So, the exact string you put here was "David, we have been expecting you - this is what you have been searching for - this place, David, is where dreams are born", which is what you get when you copy…
Perhaps "don't attribute to cleverness something that can be explained by incompetence" applies here.
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#35I stopped using Google entirely. I honestly feel violated every time it strips out words that I asked it to search for on the very first page. NO, I said search for this, do not do something ELSE you piece of shit. I actually use DuckDuckGo exclusively now, not because it got better (it did a tiny bit), but because Google got so absolutely horrible that DDG is now actually better! I have the habit of trying Google if…
While searching for info on a virus DLL, Google was pathetic. I only had luck with yandex.com
Pro-tip: Yandex image search is pretty amazing actually.
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#36I was looking for a specific person recently and searched: Canada I guess they were pretty obscure so Google in all their wisdom displayed the results for Canada, with the entire name struck through. Fantastic. Defaulting to the most generic term in a query to the point of absolute uselessness.
I’ve always found “lemming” ridiculous, especially in all software that copied Google despite not being generalist. “We’ve seen you are searching for ‘Phillips screw 24x17’, I won’t tell you that we don’t have any but here are results for ‘Screwdrivers’, just in case you want to use a screwdriver instead of a screw. Also here are a few Phillips TVs, in case this might help you fix your car.”
Product search on websites for traditional brick and mortar stores is the worst for this. I guess they weren't born with the challenge of "if customers can't find the product they want, you will die" that online-only businesses have, but still, it's not like online shopping is a new thing. And people might like to know if the store even has what they need before heading out!
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#37Google results are low quality unless you enable verbatim. Tools, all results, verbatim.
It blows my mind this isn't the default. I can only assume they've adopted the opinion of search engines before them that they could benefit from showing lower quality results to keep the users on their site longer.
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#38I agree with your general point that the search quality has gone down, quotes doesn't even always work anymore to get exact results. Looking into your suggested example: That turned out to be interesting and unexpected. So, the exact string you put here was "David, we have been expecting you - this is what you have been searching for - this place, David, is where dreams are born", which is what you get when you copy…
For me, 49 minutes after parent comment was posted, searching Google for the quoted phrase "expecting you - this is what you have been searching for - this place" yields exactly two results: the linked story, and _this HN page_.
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#39Am I crazy or is there room for a good early 2000s-style link aggregator in today's content discovery landscape? It seems like the primary reasons the likes of delicious failed is because they sold out for money. I wonder if an open source federated solution could work.
Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches
#40Am I crazy or is there room for a good early 2000s-style link aggregator in today's content discovery landscape? It seems like the primary reasons the likes of delicious failed is because they sold out for money. I wonder if an open source federated solution could work.
check out searXNG:
https://darmarit.org/searx