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Hey Google, I want my cache links back

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#121

Post by thomasgerbe »

wgx wrote: post #9

The OP raises a wider point: For the longest time google made good on their promise to keep their search page simple and easy to use. Now, bit by bit the search page is getting more filled up with cruft that you don't need and stuff that you do need gets removed. I am getting a hunch (just a vague feeling) that we might be approaching a time where a new, simpler search experience would pick up a lot of users - maybe…

99% of the time I'm searching, I don't need to use the cache feature.

Thus, I think it makes sense that it's hidden in the preview flyout than having "cached" repeated over and over again. Makes for a much cleaner search results page.

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#122

Post by patrickaljord »

jannes wrote: post #37

Just google for cache:http://www.example.com/ and it will take you directly to the cached site. This is particularly nice in combination with Chrome's omnibar where you just have to prepend "cache:" before the current URL, hit return, and it will automatically show the cached version of the page you are viewing.

In Google Chrome you can just enter that in your url bar and it works: cache:http://www.example.com/

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#123

Post by anonymoushn »

ugh wrote: post #99
rhizome wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google does not ignore quoted terms. Many times it seems like it does, to the extent that I've even gone back and replaced double-quotes with singles in hopes that the parser distinguishes literals.

Well, Google sensibly ignore quotes if it doesn’t find anything which is probably what happened to you. Would you rather Google to just display that it found nothing?

Even when it can find something, it will mix in non-matching results with your matching results.

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#124

Post by jurjenh »

guelo wrote: post #23

Another thing that has been annoying me lately is that it seems like like I have to add a + in front of every word or Google might decide without any indication that it will completely ignore it.

I was going to suggest that google should insert a short "your search [A +B 'C D E'] returned x results" and then follow up with "Searching for [A B C D E] returned y results" to separate the results.

Now I think about it, Google is most likely doing this intentionally, to get more data for "natural language search" ie, to infer what people might mean by combining the results, then seeing what people click on to validate the technique.

This does mean that intentional input won't work anymore, unless there is a means to turn this semi-semantic search off.

Hmmmm... maybe DuckDuckGo would be a suitable alternative?

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#125

Post by cellularmitosis »

joakin wrote: post #6
wladimir wrote: post #5

I don't agree this is necessarily bad. Arguably, "view cache" is a feature for power-users that know what they're doing. Moving the cache link into that pop-up did simplify the user interface in the most common case, in which the user just wants to view the real link. It no longer has to be rendered for every result. IMO it just takes some getting used to that the cache link has been moved. Or are you viewing pages f…

Depends on the users, for example my non-techie partner always clicks on the cache link just because it highlights the words that she searched for on the page. For some people it may be an important move

Yes, yes, yes. I almost always click on the cached link, because the highlighted search terms allow me to find what I'm looking for so much more quickly. This fundamentally changes the way I use the web. Thanks a lot, google :(

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#126

Post by mirkules »

ellyagg wrote: post #106
wgx wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, more than visual cruft (although I would argue there is more of that than before) - it's interaction cruft. Big annoyances for me: 1. Auto suggesting and searching for words I didn't mean - common with technical phrases 2. Ignoring "quoted terms" and searching for them as an AND instead 3. Auto refreshing the results page as I modify my terms - it makes the experience slower, and I don't need to see results f…

I can't scroll the page with the up/down arrows. It don't get why no one mentions this. Sometimes I'm afraid they're targeting just me. Is it really the right trade-off to steal the arrow key to scroll the results with a cursor? Who uses that feature? Leave my arrows alone.

Indeed. It is extremely annoying to have my arrow keys hijacked for no apparent reason. I know how to scroll a page and click on links, thank you very much. I tend to look through a page before scrolling, and use the arrows to scroll down and reveal more stuff.

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#127

Post by wikyd »

ajanuary wrote: post #31
icebraining wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I'm not using the mouse, so any mouse moves are problematic. But I won't demand Google to change just for me, of course.

Actually I'm a little surprised there doesn't seem to be any keyboard shortcuts for invoking the preview.

Use the up and down keys to page through the results. When a result is highlighted, you can press the right key to show the preview.

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#128

Post by MaysonL »

joe_the_user wrote: post #120
ugh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are not. Only if Google can’t find anything – which makes a lot of sense.

No, In my somewhat brief testing, current Google is simply inconsistent. Sometimes it allows searches for fully quoted terms, sometimes is fails and warns you, sometimes it fails but not warning you... Try: "society of spectacles"

even +"society of spectacles" doesn't do anything different...

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#129

Post by MaysonL »

joelhaus wrote: post #114
wgx wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, more than visual cruft (although I would argue there is more of that than before) - it's interaction cruft. Big annoyances for me: 1. Auto suggesting and searching for words I didn't mean - common with technical phrases 2. Ignoring "quoted terms" and searching for them as an AND instead 3. Auto refreshing the results page as I modify my terms - it makes the experience slower, and I don't need to see results f…

You can add a "+" before a quoted phrase to enforce a strict search, but share some of these same frustrations.

You can, but it doesn't always do what you expect: try +"society of spectacles"

Re: Hey Google, I want my cache links back

#130

Post by Matt_Cutts »

If it makes people feel better, I just spent around an hour debating the points from this discussion in my office with other people who work on Google's search UI and search quality.

P.S. If people want to leave examples, for example "If I do the search ["society of spectacles"] I get a result which doesn't have that phrase," I'm happy to pass that to people here to debug.

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