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Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

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Re: Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

#5
post #3

straight links to media files, it usually takes like four clicks, and that's if I make a good query to start with

Do you mean like pirated avis and mp3s? I think the difficulty in finding DDLs is partly a feature. If they are easy to find, they get DMCAed immediately.

Re: Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

#6
A) In the 1980s there was a rabies scare in the UK. There was a TV series about rabies; a man tried to extort money by threatening to import rabies and release infected foxes.

i) What was the name of that TV series?

ii) Are there any newspaper reports about that man and his scheme?

B) Recently on british tv (probably BBC) there was a programme about people (possibly Indian?) who lived by reclaiming gold.

i) What is this tv programme called

ii) BONUS: Is there an on-demand legal playback for this programme? Is there a transcript for this programme?

(it is Welcome to India (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n8278) )

C) I watched a movie / tv programme.

i) What was the song played during that scene?

ii) What make of watch was the character wearing?

D) ALMOST ANYTHING USING AMAZON'S SEARCH TAKES FAR FAR TOO LONG AND IT IS A HATEFUL EXPERIENCE (apologies to any Amazoners reading this, but come on, the search is broken.)

E) I want a new spectacles case. I want it to be really freaking nice. I'm not sure what I want, but I'd know it when I saw it. I think I want something machined from a lump of aluminium / aluminum or a nice titanium shell. A solid, well made, box.

i) How can I find the case I want, while avoiding the SEO'd warehouses of bulk cheap and nasty glasses case websites?

I have lots of examples of things that take me too long to find. I used to know how to tweak the search query to get Google to give me better results. I've lost that ability, and the tweaking sometimes takes me longer than I'm interested in the subject. Sometimes I go back with a fresh mind and the tweak is obvious.

I'll keep a list of queries that don't work. (And the fixed query if I find it.)

Re: Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

#7
post #6

A) In the 1980s there was a rabies scare in the UK. There was a TV series about rabies; a man tried to extort money by threatening to import rabies and release infected foxes. i) What was the name of that TV series? ii) Are there any newspaper reports about that man and his scheme? B) Recently on british tv (probably BBC) there was a programme about people (possibly Indian?) who lived by reclaiming gold. i) What is t…

To follow up for any Googlers reading:

"Word order matters" - but [black cats site:com] is the same as [site:com black cats]

Small words (a, the) now matter, when they didn't use to.

> "Punctuation that Google ignores: ¶, £, €, ©, ®, ÷, §, %, (), @, ?, !"

Except [£10 in €] gives me the conversion tools.

Google used to not ignore brackets. [+garden +(chair OR lounger)] (Yes, I know that + is now not used to force inclusion and that "quotes" are used instead.)

Google does have various blogs to keep up with that stuff.

---

Another thing that was hard to find:

F) During the English "expenses scandal" of UK MPs an MP was accused of odd expenses claims, and she then got media training to reply to her accusers. She claimed the cost of that training on expenses.

i) Who was that MP?

ii) What newspaper was it in? (I think Telegraph, but I'm not sure.)

Re: Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

#8
Faceted product search across multiple sites is broken. Try to find for example corner electric fireplace media units in white (furniture). 1. You get Googles own shopping results without facets 2. You get individual ecom sites with tons of false positives including discontinued items 3. If you're lucky you get to Google image search and work from there.

Re: Ask HN: What takes you too long to find?

#10
post #7
post #6

A) In the 1980s there was a rabies scare in the UK. There was a TV series about rabies; a man tried to extort money by threatening to import rabies and release infected foxes. i) What was the name of that TV series? ii) Are there any newspaper reports about that man and his scheme? B) Recently on british tv (probably BBC) there was a programme about people (possibly Indian?) who lived by reclaiming gold. i) What is t…

To follow up for any Googlers reading: "Word order matters" - but [black cats site:com] is the same as [site:com black cats] Small words (a, the) now matter, when they didn't use to. > "Punctuation that Google ignores: ¶, £, €, ©, ®, ÷, §, %, (), @, ?, !" Except [£10 in €] gives me the conversion tools. Google used to not ignore brackets. [+garden +(chair OR lounger)] (Yes, I know that + is now not used to force incl…

Also, Google ignores capitalization.
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