Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 199 posts

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#91

Post by yason »

rplnt wrote: post #67

Using google is so much more frustrating than say 10 years ago. And generated websites is just a small problem with that. In the past google didn't try to be that smart and gave you more control. Now it's optimized for users asking full sentences instead of search queries. Now it's incorporating your location and perceived language into the query. Age of the document plays a huge role. Popularity of words in differen…

In my experience the quoted search does work. Google will report it can't find what I asked if there are no such pages with the exact quote:

    No results found for "...".
    
    Results for ... (without quotes):
It's just very cumbersome, the old +/- syntax was more usable.

Actually, I'd prefer if each word I write would just default to being a hard requirement. I could then manually allow more creative interpretation with a specific syntax, like ~word, or exclude specific words alltogether with -word.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#92

Post by mellavora »

jliptzin wrote: post #74

I don’t understand why this is so hard for google. Allow end users to flag links as SEO spam. It’s very easy for a human to figure out. I can tell in maybe 1/4 a second that a page is just SEO shit. The keyword stuffing, the irrelevant fluff before and after any relevant content (if it’s there at all), the annoying ads that take up the whole screen, etc. Let us flag it, remove it from the index. Take a snapshot of th…

What happens when content farms start doing this, flagging links they don't like (i.e. their competitors)?

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#93

Post by dazc »

kingcharles wrote: post #48

All printers suck. I've tried every range and type of printer imaginable over the last 35 years and every single one has made me hate my life. I just threw a laser out of the window because it got to the point where it would only print one page before jamming. I bought a Canon inkjet and that has lasted a couple of months, but now you have to push each piece of paper in to get it started, and a couple of weeks ago it…

I've had two cheap Canon Inkjet printers for 10 years plus and they both have worked like a charm for all of this time. Maybe I have been lucky?

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#94

Post by willyt »

Back to the old days when you had to learn from working in the industry what the best equipment is and how to use it. We used to have to read trade magazines to find out about new developments. Probably you need to subscribe to whatever the trade magazines are for the reprographics industry and browse their archives to find out what machines are available then you need to speak the sales team of the relevant company.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#95

Post by mcv »

sokoloff wrote: post #75
mcv wrote: post #62

The rant is not so much about laser printers, but about search engines and crappy SEO. I mean, it starts with a laser printer problem he has, but he doesn't blame his printer. He blames Google for not helping him find a better laser printer. And I checked: DuckDuckGo has a different top result, but the same problem: an article about top 10 laser printers that contains only ink jet printers. These are crap articles th…

> article about top 10 laser printers that contains only ink jet printers The top non-ad article I get on DDG is a top-10 article that includes 5 lasers, 1 LED printer: Canon MF741Cdw, Brother HL-L8360CDWT, HP M182, HP M479fdn, Brother MFC-L3710CW (LED), HP M404dn. https://plumbaroakland.com/best-large-format-laser-printer/

I did not check all of the printers in the list, but the top 4 are all ink jet printers. You're right that lower down the list there are some laser printers as well, but as a list of the top 10 best laser printers, the article is useless.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#96

Post by newsclues »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #70

In 2010-2012, google results were peak content farm stuff too. Then they fought it actively, in 2013 they announced that they changed a lot in their relevance calculations (did they call it “project Panda”? For some reason I remembered it being called that) and it really helped, and in 2013-2015 it was a golden age of search results. Content farms that worked by stuffing keywords and working in rings to boost their p…

I’d love the inside story on how from a user perspective Google search went to shit.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#97

Post by rplnt »

yason wrote: post #91
rplnt wrote: post #67

Using google is so much more frustrating than say 10 years ago. And generated websites is just a small problem with that. In the past google didn't try to be that smart and gave you more control. Now it's optimized for users asking full sentences instead of search queries. Now it's incorporating your location and perceived language into the query. Age of the document plays a huge role. Popularity of words in differen…

In my experience the quoted search does work. Google will report it can't find what I asked if there are no such pages with the exact quote: No results found for "...". Results for ... (without quotes): It's just very cumbersome, the old +/- syntax was more usable. Actually, I'd prefer if each word I write would just default to being a hard requirement. I could then manually allow more creative interpretation with a…

That works for the case you described. It will still ignore typos, dialects, or in my case a completely different language from the same language group. It will happily highlight different words that it deems to be equal to something I put in quotes.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#98

Post by GuB-42 »

jliptzin wrote: post #74

I don’t understand why this is so hard for google. Allow end users to flag links as SEO spam. It’s very easy for a human to figure out. I can tell in maybe 1/4 a second that a page is just SEO shit. The keyword stuffing, the irrelevant fluff before and after any relevant content (if it’s there at all), the annoying ads that take up the whole screen, etc. Let us flag it, remove it from the index. Take a snapshot of th…

And then spammers or unscrupulous competitors will flag legitimate sites as spam, pushing the signal-to-noise ratio to the point of uselessness. Plus, few users will actually flag correctly. Most will simply not notice, or not bother, others will flag perfectly legitimate results as spam just because Google wasn't psychic enough to know exactly what they want from their vague query.

And Google already has a pretty good metric in the bounce rate without the need to add a "flag" option. That is, if you go back to the search page shortly after clicking a link, that link is probably irrelevant. I guess that SEO spammers found a way around that.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#99

Post by dmos62 »

spaniard89277 wrote: post #85
dmos62 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when I need some hardware I go to a local hardware shop for professionals and ask/buy from them I don't think that I would get good buying advice that way. E.g. I was looking at eink Android tablets. The information I got from reddit, HN and youtube reviews was so niche that I'd have been suprised if a random electronics store salesman would have had it.

For that maybe, for laptop chargers and batteries, cables, electronic components etc I've got better luck at that store. Keep in mind that they are not a general public storem you don't buy consumer electronics there, but for professionals. Technicians of all kinds go there to buy, so they are not just salespeople. Their website is absolutely awful though: https://www.cetronic.es/

I would pay a premium if I was confident that I'm speaking to an expert that will tell me when he's _not_ an expert in something I'm looking for.

Re: A rant about search engine results for large format laser printers [video]

#100

Post by aulin »

dmos62 wrote: post #76
spaniard89277 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same everywhere. Amazon and Google are absolutely worhtless for anything that is slightly not mainstream. What I personally do is, when I need some hardware I go to a local hardware shop for professionals and ask/buy from them. I am probably not getting the best deal, but it's better than no deal whatsoever or exhausting myself searching for a solution, or buying something in the internet that is not worth i…

> when I need some hardware I go to a local hardware shop for professionals and ask/buy from them I don't think that I would get good buying advice that way. E.g. I was looking at eink Android tablets. The information I got from reddit, HN and youtube reviews was so niche that I'd have been suprised if a random electronics store salesman would have had it.

I'd say that's mainstream though
Post reply on HN