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Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

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Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#291

Post by bbarn »

secretsatan wrote: post #246

I absolutely detest the google optimised recipes, they're mostly just filler and you have to scroll all the way to the end to find the recipe. I just go to bbc food which has an excellent db of recipes, and they use correct temperatures for the oven too.

seriouseats.com is also a fantastic site. Recipes there are lengthy but it's because they use the length to explain things in very excellent detail, and the science behind why. Minimal adverts and high quality content, but you might need to convert some temps :)

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#292

Post by PaulHoule »

wodenokoto wrote: post #241
PaulHoule wrote: post #87

For Python programming I would say 100% of the time you should look the answer up in the official manual for a well-defined problem (delete a file) because the manual is correct, well-written, etc. It's astonishing how often Google and Bing snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on queries like this. If you go looking in splogs, spam overflow and other spam sites at best you are going to get wrong answers, at worse y…

Searching for "Delete a file" in the python manual, will take you to a page about the configuration parser. https://docs.python.org/3/search.html?q=delete+a+file&check_... Top result: https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html?highligh... Top 4 result is "Miscellaneous operating system interfaces", which does hold the answer, but it is not obvious, and browsing through that page is quite a chore before you f…

To be fair I have read the Python manual over and over again, I can usually find things by clicking on the appropriate section.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#293

Post by bbarn »

Free content is free content, but when it comes to cooking sites, some of them are just flat out scammy SEO farms. Even big names like food network, a link to the recipe I want almost always simply goes to an index page without my recipe on it on the food network site.

The long tell me your life story format of just wrapping a recipe that's not original is also incredibly annoying, and sometimes I find I get tricked into just wading through ads for nothing of value. As I posted elsewhere here, I've become very loyal to a few high quality sites that I can count on. seriouseats.com is probably the only one I really like in web format, but honestly youtube is full of excellent 12-15 minute videos for just about any meal I can think of, and I tend to go there.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#294

Post by tapland »

bilkow wrote: post #284
superasn wrote: post #249

There are some sites that are so useless and they have never ever helped me once, yet somehow they are always in the top 10 results 1. w3schools 2. pinterest 3. microsoft answers and all microsoft websites actually (it always looks like the person asking the question is asking exactly what i want, but unlike stackexchange, there are seldom any useful answers) 4. all the code clones for SO 5. all alternative to / revi…

> alternativeto I actually find alternativeto so useful that I usually just go directly to it instead of my search engine when looking for FOSS alternatives. Having to go to the alternative page before clicking the official site link is a small hassle compared to finding what's the official from name search, but it used to be better when the description page and the alternative page were the same. If I were to guesa,…

It's my go to place for alternatives, so if it shows up odds are I wanted that result.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#295

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

superasn wrote: post #249

There are some sites that are so useless and they have never ever helped me once, yet somehow they are always in the top 10 results 1. w3schools 2. pinterest 3. microsoft answers and all microsoft websites actually (it always looks like the person asking the question is asking exactly what i want, but unlike stackexchange, there are seldom any useful answers) 4. all the code clones for SO 5. all alternative to / revi…

W3schools is wonderful, it's got great primers on a whole lot of languages and libraries with concise, clear explanations and examples.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#296

Post by charlieyu1 »

superasn wrote: post #249

There are some sites that are so useless and they have never ever helped me once, yet somehow they are always in the top 10 results 1. w3schools 2. pinterest 3. microsoft answers and all microsoft websites actually (it always looks like the person asking the question is asking exactly what i want, but unlike stackexchange, there are seldom any useful answers) 4. all the code clones for SO 5. all alternative to / revi…

I’d say it is that it is Microsoft’s faults that their answers sucks.

Most commonly asked questions you will be getting one of the three responses: 1. assume the user is at fault 2. it’s a “feature”, get over it 3. the official helper doesn’t know anyway so he/she just pasted a link to some random tutorial they found online which doesn’t work anyway

There really isn’t much that Google unless they kinda remove Microsoft at all.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#297

Post by Mumps »

bbarn wrote: post #293

Free content is free content, but when it comes to cooking sites, some of them are just flat out scammy SEO farms. Even big names like food network, a link to the recipe I want almost always simply goes to an index page without my recipe on it on the food network site. The long tell me your life story format of just wrapping a recipe that's not original is also incredibly annoying, and sometimes I find I get tricked…

BBC Good Food is worth proselytizing to. No spam, great recipes, and often easy/simple (depends on what you're going for, of course).

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#298

Post by pcurve »

pronlover723 wrote: post #140
pcurve wrote: post #67

Google lags behind in Image search quality too, surprisingly. Bing consistently does better for me at least. Google also lags behind searching for torrent content, not surprisingly. In fact, I'm going to say, I use Google knowing that it sucks in many areas, just because it's hassle to use multiple search engines, and the quality was acceptable enough that it got the job done. But now, I do more searches in both Goog…

Google sucks at image search but I just wanted to add, Bing either intentionally or unintentionally broke one of my porn searches. I'd search for "my-fetish-keyword-of-choice" and then pick to only show results for the last month. Since like January of February the results have been zero which I know, based on all the other places I look for content, is false. Content from sites that otherwise show up in Bing results…

Just to clarify, when I say Image search, I meant, searching for like-images by uploading your own.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#299

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

Rilfeu wrote: post #289
naoqj wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MDN is generally too technical.

As it should be. It's a resource for professional developers, not people who are learning how to code for the first time.

Professional developers enjoy simple and concise explanations just as much as people who are coding for the first time.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#300

Post by pweezy »

namdnay wrote: post #266
Sebguer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google bought the main provider of flight information in 2010 (ITA). ITA had such a monopoly that Google was required to continue licensing their software out for years afterwards, though I think it expired in ~2016.

ITA wasn’t in any way to e main provider of flight information in 2010. It’s a relatively minor player, but with great features

ITA powered the backend flight search functionality for virtually every OTA, even if the ITA Matrix website wasn’t popular among end users.
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