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Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

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Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#151

Post by AndrewKemendo »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #144
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the idea I challenge you to find a group of rich folks who will fund such a thing - and will not simply demand the same profits as current structures do. I just tried this with ~30 wealthy individuals/family funds that I have great relationships with and literally everyone said some form of the following: “I am not going to liquidate my current investments that are on IPO trajectory for something that by defin…

Huh, is this story a metaphor/allegory for something? Why not 'challenge' yourself if you've already done quite a bit of groundwork? Or at least the comment suggests you've already put more thought into this than me.

I’ve already put maximum financial and personal time inputs into my particular project, which is unfortunately insufficient to get started in earnest.

I need 200k to actually start what I want and currently have 5k in my bank account and a lot of mandatory overhead (kids etc).

If you’re legit interested I’ll tell you all the details 1:1

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#152

Post by freediver »

netsroht wrote: post #107
TradingPlaces wrote: post #18

Kagi. Never have I been so happy to send someone $10 every month. When you become the customer, not the product, it’s amazing what can happen.

Being logged in while making search queries in search engines poses significant privacy risks. The searches can paint a comprehensive profile of the user, and these data often remain stored for extended periods. There's a chance this information might be shared with third parties. Coupled with other user data, these logged-in searches can pave the way for targeted advertising, sophisticated predictive analysis, and p…

Kagi already provides a way to search anonymously via a random email address (we do not really verify it or need it for anything) and Bitcoin/Lightning payment [1].

Since you are interested in cryptography, there is a discussion on Kagi feedback site along the same lines as your idea, about possible ways to achieve this without the need for cryptocurrency. [2]

[1] https://blog.kagi.com/accepting-paypal-bitcoin

[2] https://kagifeedback.org/d/653-completely-anonymous-searches...

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#153

Post by marcosdumay »

crazygringo wrote: post #125
marcosdumay wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never once seen anybody talk about that feature's existence on HN until now Every time I tried it, it didn't work. It certainly changed a lot on those years, but the reason nobody acknowledges it is probably because it's a coin-toss if Google wants "verbatim" to mean verbatim today. Quotes actually stopped working (they became a hint, instead of filtering the results) a long time ago, and many people insisted…

Can you (or anyone) supply an example where it doesn't? I just tried a whole bunch of queries on seemingly generic-sounding sentences from old pages on niche blogs and it found every single one. So I'd love to understand when it doesn't work and if there's some pattern -- like if certain punctuation trips it up, or if it's simply pages not indexed in the first place.

It didn't work for any query. A verbatim search was very similar to putting every word in quotes. That's very obviously not your experience, so it's either a personalization thing, or Google silently changed it. Anyway, there isn't a pattern to find, it works or it doesn't.

But then, I've seen it work too. And stop working again.

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#154

Post by alwaysbeconsing »

netsroht wrote: post #146
EA-3167 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not searching for anything terrifyingly illegal, and for the rest Google and MS already scrape and compile every byte of data I've ever generated. Why would it suddenly be a problem when a more reliable and less vicious company is doing a fraction of that? You have to understand that most of us aren't fighting some battle for "perfect privacy," I just want a search engine that works for me, rather than advertiser…

I get your perspective. A lot of us just want a search engine that serves the user first, not advertisers, especially at the results level. It's about function over strict privacy for many--everyone has their own privacy threshold. But it's also about digital data autonomy. It's not just about avoiding surveillance over sensitive searches, but having control over our data's destiny. Even mundane data, in aggregate, c…

Personally privacy is a strong concern for me; I have many aspects of my digital life set up less conveniently in exchange for privacy.

In this case though we've have on one hand a product that definitely does aggregate data about searches, and doesn't do what I need very well; and the other a product that could, but does not currently aggregate data, and does an excellent job serving my needs.

And importantly there is no option of a product, available now, that is verifiably prevented from aggregation. Even a VPN unless I disconnect and get a new random IP between every individual search does not provide that protection. (And then browser fingerprints even.)

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#155

Post by gabrielsroka »

crazygringo wrote: post #100
sneak wrote: post #14

You have to use a special "verbatim" search product from Google, it isn't the main search box anymore. Look under Advanced or something.

First of all, wow. It's there (under Tools, you don't even need to go to Advanced), it works, and yet I've never once seen anybody talk about that feature's existence on HN until now. And people have been complaining about not being able to do verbatim searches for years and years here on HN. Second, I just looked up when this feature was introduced (assuming it was fairly new), and it was in... November 2011 . It's…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30353182

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36618104

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#156

Post by alwaysbeconsing »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #141
TradingPlaces wrote: post #18

Kagi. Never have I been so happy to send someone $10 every month. When you become the customer, not the product, it’s amazing what can happen.

I tried it a little but honestly thinking about having a limit of searches made me anxious every time I thought about searching like “is this really necessary” and so I went back to google.

I can offer that I am constantly online and using Kagi across my devices for all searches and so far have not come close to using up my quota.

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#157

Post by dcminter »

TradingPlaces wrote: post #18

Kagi. Never have I been so happy to send someone $10 every month. When you become the customer, not the product, it’s amazing what can happen.

I'm just trying Kagi out now, having done about 2 searches of my initial free 100. So far one was better than google and the other no worse. The "no worse" one was for something where I already suspect there aren't any good results to find.

Fingers crossed, but I have a good feeling about it. If it goes well the pricing seems fair.

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#158

Post by Izkata »

dihydro wrote: post #57
robertlagrant wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's a good tip.

Here's a URL Link to the advanced search: https://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en&fg=1

It's not on that page, you can only switch to Verbatim on the search results. OP was mistaken.

Re: Ask HN: How to do literal web searches after Google destroyed the “ ” feature?

#159

Post by Izkata »

late25 wrote: post #111
dihydro wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a URL Link to the advanced search: https://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en&fg=1

I tried it and it looks like it does nothing but wrap my query in quotes… and then return non-exact results if not found. How is this any different than what people have historically done?

That isn't different, Verbatim search isn't on the advanced search page. You can only get to it from the search results page like in my earlier comment.
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