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Website search hurts my feelings

openmymind.net

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Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#51

Post by Kubuxu »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #24
malfist wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst offender of this practice has to be the windows start menu. Even when you fully type the executable name, it can show up below the fold under unrelated results. Just try to get to display settings on windows these days through the start menu.

The windows search bar will search half the web before showing you a small exe that you've had installed for a year.

Which is why I have disabled that functionality. I also don’t need M$ to know every app I’m running on my PC (although they probably have that data some other way).

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#52

Post by Kubuxu »

Zetobal wrote: post #22
okasaki wrote: post #9

Vaguely related but Firefox on android history search (well, autocomplete) is awful. n -> suggests nothing ne -> suggests news.ycombinator.com new -> suggests news.ycombinator.com news -> suggests nothing news. -> suggests nothing news.y -> suggests nothing news.yc -> suggests nothing news.yco -> suggests nothing news.ycom -> suggests nothing news.ycomb -> suggests nothing news.ycombi -> suggests nothing news.ycombin…

The firefox awesomebar and the history search are atrocious. Sometimes even if I visited the site in the last 5 minutes there will be no autocomplete available.

Make sure to change omnibar settings to prefer history over search.

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#53

Post by marcinzm »

malfist wrote: post #14
satyrnein wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not disagreeing, but this example seems like a data/tagging problem which is probably some other department.

Data tagging makes Walmart throw a huge banner ad for pancakes into your search for lentils?

The money from showing a pancake ad make them do that. It's not a search problem. They know it's not a good experience but they also know it makes them more money than not showing it. The goal is money. Your experience is merely a means to that end.

The profit margins on selling products are abysmal for e-commerce. The profit margins on ads are amazing.

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#54

Post by thaumasiotes »

chefandy wrote: post #34

While the overall point holds true, some of the complaints don't make sense. Searching "rice" for example will probably get you parboiled white rice, instant red beans and rice, chicken and rice canned soup, and rice pudding— many of those facets make prefect sense. If you were searching for rice paper for crafting, or even "nuts," that "food" facet would be plenty useful. You can't look at one narrow usage path to j…

> Searching "rice" for example will probably get you parboiled white rice, instant red beans and rice, chicken and rice canned soup, and rice pudding— many of those facets make perfect sense.

Well, no, if I ask for rice, the odds are overwhelming that I'm looking for rice, in which case chicken and rice canned soup is a totally inappropriate response. It would make as much sense as returning alcohol-free wine when asked for "alcohol".

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#55

Post by kakaz »

malfist wrote: post #17
okasaki wrote: post #9

Vaguely related but Firefox on android history search (well, autocomplete) is awful. n -> suggests nothing ne -> suggests news.ycombinator.com new -> suggests news.ycombinator.com news -> suggests nothing news. -> suggests nothing news.y -> suggests nothing news.yc -> suggests nothing news.yco -> suggests nothing news.ycom -> suggests nothing news.ycomb -> suggests nothing news.ycombi -> suggests nothing news.ycombin…

The worst offender of this practice has to be the windows start menu. Even when you fully type the executable name, it can show up below the fold under unrelated results. Just try to get to display settings on windows these days through the start menu.

It is by design. You are talking about company which count from 3.11 to 11 going via 98. ...

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#56

Post by leephillips »

gniv wrote: post #26

On the other end of the spectrum, I've been impressed by Netflix search. I would search a name and they do not have that movie, but would suggest a mix of similar movies, movies with the same actors or director. It's pretty clever, I just wish they were more explicit about it, as in showing the reasoning behind choosing a result.

I don’t understand. How is it useful for Netflix to show me movies that they don’t have? And how hard is it to implement search over their catalog when they only seem to have about 100 movies?

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#58

Post by kayodelycaon »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #46

Feels like there's a pretty widespread problem that goes something like this: * PO: We need search! * PM to architect: Google how to implement search! * Architect: googles "best search library 2023 java" Aha! Let's use Elasticsearch! * PM to Team: Alright, I need a search feature next sprint. Architect googled for 5 minutes and says we should use elasticsearch! * Team: Alright, integrating elasticsearch in a sprint s…

Intellectually, I knew this was common but I never stopped to consider how fortunate I am to work for a company who understands things like search are difficult.

It helps we have two internal departments whose primary jobs are data management and analysis. (Real statistics, not “AI”.)

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#59

Post by madeofpalk »

satyrnein wrote: post #7
vasco wrote: post #3

If heads of product were forced to use their own products for a full afternoon every week the quality of the web would increase a lot. The amount of high level product people that can't demo their own product and cannot find features they hype up in slide decks is depressing.

Not disagreeing, but this example seems like a data/tagging problem which is probably some other department.

The product is bad. Shifting the blame around doesn't magically make the product better.

Re: Website search hurts my feelings

#60

Post by madeofpalk »

eatonphil wrote: post #40
pknerd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not want to miss a chance to empty your pockets

That doesn't make a ton of sense in the Netflix case since presumably it's actually more expensive for every additional movie you watch since your subscription price is fixed and each additional movie you watch costs bandwidth and compute?

On the other hand, people that don't watch any content are at the highest risk of cancelling their membership.
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