Paul Graham, the Commons, and How Google Stopped Being Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Paul Graham, the Commons, and How Google Stopped Being Google

#101

Post by tba » Fri, Mar 23, 2012, 5:26 AM UTC

JonnieCache wrote: post #81

DanBC wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not the typical user that Google is aiming for. I find the unasked for word substitutions and stemming and "corrections" and the bubble frustrating, but I recognise that I'm an edge case. Google really should have some kind of "what you type is what you get" mode, with user-definable stemming and word substitution and bubbles and etc. ( http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/search-using-your... ) > we fo…

> Google really should have some kind of "what you type is what you get" mode http://googlesystem.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/google-verbatim.h...

Doesn't work as advertised -- try searching for [["everything wrong" crossfade]] in verbatim mode.

Re: Paul Graham, the Commons, and How Google Stopped Being Google

#102

Post by stephengoodwin » Fri, Mar 23, 2012, 5:34 AM UTC

moultano wrote: post #59

stephengoodwin wrote: post #15

I agree Google has gone into a filter bubble, but the article very speculative and provides no statistics or examples to make a good point. This is a pop-science article, so I don't have high expectations.

Why do you agree then that Google has gone into a filter bubble?

Based on various other articles I've read. I would not go to an extreme and say "this is a terrible idea," but I would assert it's worthy of serious thought on how to ensure we are not limiting ourselves to the filter we've built.

Nonetheless, my criticism was directed at this article for not providing at least a few examples of the results of a filter bubble.

Re: Paul Graham, the Commons, and How Google Stopped Being Google

#103

Post by loverobots » Fri, Mar 23, 2012, 4:07 PM UTC

thisisnotatest wrote: post #99

loverobots wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first result, an ad, is for Florida, where I live. The next three non-ad based results are for California, Virginia and New York. The fourth (and on) non-ad results are for Florida. So you click on the relevant link ("happened" to be an ad,) as the Stanford MBAs high five each other at Googleplex. I remember reading a very interesting comment about the incentives of providing the best results and ad revenue. It's…

No. I work on Search Quality at Google. We have a firewall between Search Quality and Ads. We don't answer to Ads. Revenue is just not my team's problem. We come into work every day and look at our search results and try to get the most relevant answers ranked as #1, #2, etc. I never think about the impact of my ranking improvements on ads. I've been personally involved in dozens of changes, and I've never once heard…

You can only speak about yourself, you do not know what goes behind the scenes. Firewall, like the investment banks have? Don't take personally, enjoy your paycheck and stock grants, you work for a corporation that answers to Wall Street. Listen to the earnings call once and analyze what the ad people say about "innovation."

But Google has the long-term view: if we can keep satisfying our users' needs, the revenue will follow.

Personally I no longer buy that. The revenue is now #1 and now Google is spending like crazy to keep the users. It started last year full speed

Re: Paul Graham, the Commons, and How Google Stopped Being Google

#104

Post by mjwalshe » Mon, Mar 26, 2012, 9:03 AM UTC

replax wrote: post #80

JoshTriplett wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you live in the US, do a google search for dmv. First of all, no, it doesn't give me the DMV for my state first. And second, why would I do that when I can easily search for "$statename dmv" and have that search universally do the right thing regardless of location? I don't want hidden inputs to my search based on my location; I want everything that determines the results encapsulated in the query.

I could not agree more. That becomes even more frustrating when you (temporarily) are in another country and suddenly get smacked in your face by incorrect location based search results. If google wants to really retain traction with people who want to search for what they type (don't even get me started on the "showing results for: $bshere, if you want to see results for what you searched for, click here"), then the…

Yep the movie times searches on the uk are messed up beyond belife even on Google.co.uk - Google insistes on serving up me the restuls for Bedford Texas and not Bedford in the Uk