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Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

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Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#111

Post by jmkni »

simsla wrote: post #80

One Google feature that I miss terribly is hard filtering. Used to be if you included "term" or -"term" you'd only get results that did/n't include those terms. But it seems Google has gone all in on the "I don't think you really meant that" approach [ ], and the hard filters have become suggestions at best. -- [ ] Ok, I know it's probably because they're switching more and more to semantic search and ML, but they co…

Similar to the date filtering, you used to be able to see results between two dates, this doesn't seem to work at all anymore.

As an example, if I search for 'gilbert gottfried' and set the date filter 1 apr -> 3 apr, I still see stories about his death.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#112

Post by headsoup »

flenserboy wrote: post #64
mort96 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great way to describe it. Google still gives me good results for the common stuff, but really fails me when I'm looking for something in the "long tail". I just wish I could find obscure things again.

I wish there was a way to get rid of all sellers from results. Of late I have had to dig 2-3 pages in to get to anything which wasn't an online store.

There is, use a different search engine. I've even found something as new as Andisearch good for finding research papers and Qwant good for general searching. There are many more and they keep up with Google pretty well now without the trash.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#113

Post by headsoup »

From all of the discussion here, I think the most interesting thing is the seeming lack of attempts to try other browsers when clearly Google is doing poorly and creating frustration.

I mean in the general population I would not be surprised, but on this site the community is generally pretty tech aware to know of alternatives at least.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#114

Post by spookthesunset »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #7
lhorie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The date when he landed on the moon. For mars, the correct answer is "never".

Ah, I totally misread that. Hilarious. Brain auto-correct strikes again.

I suspect this happened to a lot of people. I read it like “is the name misspelled?”

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#115

Post by jsnell »

cryptoz wrote: post #75
jsnell wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Show visited locations in search results 2. ??? 3. Make as much money as possible

> 2. ??? oh Haha, funny old meme. Step 2 though is very clearly to show more ads and more content, to show more 'full results pages', etc, rather than just show me the 1 thing I needed and be on my way. I should include that Google said next to each result ('"555-555-555" is not on this page') and then show the page. Totally knows that the results are unrelated to my query, but shows them anyway. Why?

So was there even a single ad on that search result page? From your original description it certainly didn't sound so. If not, how did it contribute to you being shown more ads?

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#116

Post by KMag »

chaxor wrote: post #93
mort96 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great way to describe it. Google still gives me good results for the common stuff, but really fails me when I'm looking for something in the "long tail". I just wish I could find obscure things again.

What is a common query? facebook.com? Some very impressive search capabilities needed for that query there.

More than a decade ago, Google had some special-case logic for these "navigational queries". Lee Kai-Fu (head of Google China at the time) said that navigational queries were particularly prevalent in Chinese search traffic.

Though, there's also a use case for people trying to find third-party information about various websites, particularly in trying to figure out if the website itself is a scam. You really want to have the navigational result up at the top unless you have a very high degree of confidence that the site is a scam, but in all cases you want high quality reviews of the site to follow up the navigational link.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#117

Post by twofornone »

simsla wrote: post #80

One Google feature that I miss terribly is hard filtering. Used to be if you included "term" or -"term" you'd only get results that did/n't include those terms. But it seems Google has gone all in on the "I don't think you really meant that" approach [ ], and the hard filters have become suggestions at best. -- [ ] Ok, I know it's probably because they're switching more and more to semantic search and ML, but they co…

>[] Ok, I know it's probably because they're switching more and more to semantic search and ML, but they could retain the hard filters on top

The issue is that "power users" that are even aware of quotes and and hard filtering are now the long tail that google is no longer optimizing for. They'd much rather focus on the 99% of searches by, for lack of a better term, normies, and as a consequence, rather than expecting users to learn to think, their search features and performance are regressing toward a totally dumbed down mean. And I think society is worse for it.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#119

Post by the_snooze »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #23
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #11

An interesting observation is that over the years, I've sort of found that if there are not many good results, maybe I'm not asking the right questions, or I'm not thinking about the problem the right way. For example, you come up with some weird programming idea to solve a problem and no results are found -- I'm almost always headed down the wrong path. This has been proved to me over and over again as sort of a can…

>"if there are not many good results, maybe I'm not asking the right questions" I used to think this way too, but I've come to realize that Google has turned from a search engine that returns results based on my input to an answer engine that actively tries to reframe whatever I enter into some other more generic query - usually with the intent of selling me something or returning SEO spam. I've also found that the o…

>answer engine that actively tries to reframe whatever I enter into some other more generic query

Google has come full circle and turned into Ask Jeeves.

Re: Three areas where Google Search lags behind competitors: code, cooking, travel

#120

Post by NetOpWibby »

headsoup wrote: post #113

From all of the discussion here, I think the most interesting thing is the seeming lack of attempts to try other browsers when clearly Google is doing poorly and creating frustration. I mean in the general population I would not be surprised, but on this site the community is generally pretty tech aware to know of alternatives at least.

People love pain. And, being lazy.
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