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Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

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Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#91

Post by thomassmith65 »

capableweb wrote: post #14

I 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…

To a company as comfortable as Google, the fact that users want to find relevant information, as opposed to watch ads all days or buy products, is an inconvenience.

There is incentive to keep users on-site as long as possible; "our engagement metrics are rising".

There is incentive to shovel users, kicking and screaming, to product pages or advertisements.

Google, Youtube, Amazon and other giants have little incentive to improve search beyond "good enough that our users feel like we're trying to answer their query."

Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#92

Post by Someone »

genewitch wrote: post #68
DerSaidin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It corrected the typo, but it shows you the option to put it back. Click the: Search instead for realsense "failed to recconect" Then you get some very plausible looking results (idk how well they'll solve your problem).

Putting quotes or other search flags and instructions should - as a rule, interpret that literally. Anyone using them wants them to work. The only time it may annoy someone is if they're copying and pasting ... Quotes, as text, from some website? A plurality of quotes on Facebook are images of text. It's just Google's interest to keep you faffing around on their search page longer. There's no other reason - this stuf…

I would think Google has more information on whether attempting to correct typos even in text within quotes, on average, is an improvement than the typical user of their product.

I also think they’re smart enough to try and use that information. They clearly do not succeed at all times, but I would think they do, statistically. People likely make many typos, even when typing quoted text.

Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#93

Post by sinuhe69 »

Besides DDG, Yandex (the Russian search engine) also found the verbatim result. It reminds me of the time of meta-search engines, where they compare and combine the result of different search engines to produce a better one. Perhaps it’s time for such ideas again.

Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#95

Post by sinuhe69 »

In this particular case, where the result is negative, we humans can easily recognize that something is wrong. But in other cases, where the exact match is also the best match, it’s not easy to dig through all the pages to know something is amiss. Of course, I understand that SE like Google was not designed to produce exact match for long texts like this one. But no one can deny that exact match is extremely important for finding rare/obscure stuffs. Can a search engine especially for rare, obscure stuffs (in contrast to popular search) have a niche market?

Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#98

Post by bartimus »

genewitch wrote: post #68
DerSaidin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It corrected the typo, but it shows you the option to put it back. Click the: Search instead for realsense "failed to recconect" Then you get some very plausible looking results (idk how well they'll solve your problem).

Putting quotes or other search flags and instructions should - as a rule, interpret that literally. Anyone using them wants them to work. The only time it may annoy someone is if they're copying and pasting ... Quotes, as text, from some website? A plurality of quotes on Facebook are images of text. It's just Google's interest to keep you faffing around on their search page longer. There's no other reason - this stuf…

Google probably gets 100000 queries with unintentional typo's. Then Maybe 10 queries where the typo is intentional. They're simply gearing their features towards the larger use case.

Re: Tell HN: Google doesn't work anymore for exact matches

#100

Post by sshine »

Lamad123 wrote: post #82
capableweb wrote: post #14

I 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…

What's depressing is that this problem keeps getting worse and worse! It used to be a problem you'd encounter very occasionally, but I now experience this crap every few days, sometimes even for things that seem very obvious.

I see a silver lining: When Google no longer has economic incentive to deliver quality search results, new search engines can finally take a market share. For a year I've been using DuckDuckGo and Startpage, and they're both great, but sometimes there's something they just don't give me, and I've felt the need to Google it. Now that Google's results are deteriorating, I find myself doing that less. I've been able to quit Gmail, but YouTube and Search have been hard.

"Searching" has for almost two decades been synonymous with "Going to Google and feeling lucky." -- the fact that searching requires effort (and possibly more than one search engine) feels frustrating and refreshing at the same time.

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