Internet search tips
gwern.net
Internet search tips
1–10 of 86 posts
Re: Internet search tips
#2my problem is some operators just dont work any more, either on purpose or because of crappy quality control. for example, you used to be able to do:
allintitle:Neil Diamond If You Go Away
https://youtube.com/results?search_query=allintitle:Neil+Dia...
now, I get crap like this:
Neil Diamond & Shirley Bassey - Play Me - "high quality"
Barbra Streisand - If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)
> A search for [site:nytimes.com] will work, but [site:nytimes.com] won't.
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433
did I just have a stroke? those two searches are exactly the same. I try to be understanding, but I am constantly tripping over big companies glaring software and/or documentation issues, it gets old.
Re: Internet search tips
#3If I had my way, I would introduce internet search techniques as a core module in all university programs.
Too often I see in my students work evidence of lazy searching. It is as if they expect Google to be able to read their minds or even foresee their future intentions. Lack of variety of search terms is a key shortcoming. Also, lack of exploration of terms which are tangentially related to their search topic.
An internet search should be playful and exploratory. Above all, it should be understood that the internet is beyond simple linear indexing.
Re: Internet search tips
#4my problem is some operators just dont work any more, either on purpose or because of crappy quality control. for example, you used to be able to do: allintitle:Neil Diamond If You Go Away on YouTube, and get exactly what you would think, results with all those words in the title. but now, you dont: https://youtube.com/results?search_query=allintitle:Neil+Dia... now, I get crap like this: Neil Diamond & Shirley Basse…
Agree. This even applies to simple Booleans, which are sometimes completely ignored.
Re: Internet search tips
#5Soon, there will be an LLM that can utilize indexes and large scale distributed databases, and that will replace every search engine on earth.
Google should be quaking, and pissing themselves. It won't be their bardum, and they won't have the financial power to purchase said LLM.
Poof. Goodbye useless SEO spam, advertisement hell. We hated your guts.
Re: Internet search tips
#6Soon, there will be an LLM that can utilize indexes and large scale distributed databases, and that will replace every search engine on earth. Google should be quaking, and pissing themselves. It won't be their bardum, and they won't have the financial power to purchase said LLM. Poof. Goodbye useless SEO spam, advertisement hell. We hated your guts.
> Goodbye useless SEO spam
You think LLMs won't also be used to generate more SEO spam? I think this will be an arms race, or a game of LLM-cat and LLM-mouse.
Re: Internet search tips
#7Soon, there will be an LLM that can utilize indexes and large scale distributed databases, and that will replace every search engine on earth. Google should be quaking, and pissing themselves. It won't be their bardum, and they won't have the financial power to purchase said LLM. Poof. Goodbye useless SEO spam, advertisement hell. We hated your guts.
> Goodbye useless SEO spam, advertisement hell. We hated your guts.
That sounds great, but are you sure that there won't be legions of LLMs generating SEO spam and advertisement hell in warfare with the LLMs that do search?
Just as an aside: Sci-fi seems to have one superintelligence (one Skynet) fighting humankind. If superintelligence emerges, I think it's likely that we'll have thousands, millions, or billions of superintelligences fighting each other, each with its own agenda.
Re: Internet search tips
#8my problem is some operators just dont work any more, either on purpose or because of crappy quality control. for example, you used to be able to do: allintitle:Neil Diamond If You Go Away on YouTube, and get exactly what you would think, results with all those words in the title. but now, you dont: https://youtube.com/results?search_query=allintitle:Neil+Dia... now, I get crap like this: Neil Diamond & Shirley Basse…
Has anyone else experienced DuckDuckGo ignoring the exclusion operator? For example, searching `kiwi -fruit`, with no space between the hyphen and second word, used to bring up results that did not include the word "fruit". This no longer seems to be the case.
Re: Internet search tips
#9Soon, there will be an LLM that can utilize indexes and large scale distributed databases, and that will replace every search engine on earth. Google should be quaking, and pissing themselves. It won't be their bardum, and they won't have the financial power to purchase said LLM. Poof. Goodbye useless SEO spam, advertisement hell. We hated your guts.
I'm not sure how LLMs are going to be immune to SEO spam and advertising. As if human nature would magically transform and people would stop buying stupid stuff.
LLMs are already being used to make the web even less useful, by shitting out vast ammounts of meaningless and even outright wrong text for SEO purposes. And don't forget the systems are being trained on the web in the first place… using a LLM that is able to utilize a web search already thinks listicles are useful information and not just a way to place affiliate links.
When the hype is over and the VC money dried out, companies will find ways to make the LLM interfaces and outputs an 'advertising friendly' affair.
Re: Internet search tips
#10If I had my way, I would introduce internet search techniques as a core module in all university programs. Too often I see in my students work evidence of lazy searching. It is as if they expect Google to be able to read their minds or even foresee their future intentions. Lack of variety of search terms is a key shortcoming. Also, lack of exploration of terms which are tangentially related to their search topic. An…
It is as if they expect Google to be able to read their minds or even foresee their future intentions.
That's exactly what Google and other interests want --- gullible, uncritical sheeple that can be exploited to extract $$$ and worse.