Shirt Without Stripes • Hacker News Board

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#131

Post by zymhan » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

packetlost wrote: post #88

meritt wrote: post #13

The point of this isn't asking how to apply boolean search operators, it's showing that the largest AI-focused companies in the world absolutely suck at NLP.

Why would you really apply NLP to a search engine though? Generally speaking a weighted keyword search is good enough 95% of the time and requires significantly less resources to perform.

Because not everyone thinks in search operator keywords.

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#132

Post by nmstoker » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

antman wrote: post #2

A good display of the current state of search engines.

Although search within apps can be even worse. I was looking through Google Movies the other day for the film 2001 and instead it swamps the results with those from the year 2001 - one could argue that there are lots of people who are massively keen to buy films based on the year of production, but I suspect it's better to satisfy those looking for years in the title first and then after that brief interruption list the year based results, rather than the other way around. Similarly looking for "The Book of Why" on Audible is dismal: even when it's in quotes it isn't until the 42 result that the exact match shows up, with a load of useless not-obviously connected results turning up first. Both these failures interest me as they have a tangible financial implication (I clearly had money to spend) and yet they remain unfixed.

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#133

Post by yters » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

Human level NLP is the halting problem, so unsurprising that AI cannot do simple expressions.

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#134

Post by shanecleveland » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

Ugohcet wrote: post #37

enumjorge wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you search for “shirt without stripes” you expect and hope to get shirts and t-shirts with stripes?

I would prefer results containing words "shirt", "stripes" and "without". I don't want search engines to freely interpret my query and guess what I probably wanted to see while burying exact results in hundreds of pages of useless garbage.

Precisely, as there is a better way to do it. Search for "solid-colored shirt" or "black shirt" and/or further define your search to exclude the term "stripes."

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#135

Post by crimsonalucard » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

In terms of AI, the following is literally the best I have ever seen and it's not even done by a professional (meaning you can make it too):

https://aidungeon.io/

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#136

Post by onion2k » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

packetlost wrote: post #88

meritt wrote: post #13

The point of this isn't asking how to apply boolean search operators, it's showing that the largest AI-focused companies in the world absolutely suck at NLP.

Why would you really apply NLP to a search engine though? Generally speaking a weighted keyword search is good enough 95% of the time and requires significantly less resources to perform.

Why would you really apply NLP to a search engine though?

If you go to Google's homepage and click the microphone at the end of the search input box you can search by speaking. All it does is convert to speech to text, but it implies you might be able to search in a more "natural language" way.

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#137

Post by seiferteric » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

I have noticed in the past few years google results have become noticeable worse for similar reasons. Google used to _surprise_ me with how good it was able to understand what I was really looking for even when I put in vague terms. I remember being shocked on several occasions when putting in half remembered sentences, lyrics, expressions from something I had heard years ago and it being the first! result. I almost never have this experience anymore. Instead it seems to almost always return the "dumb" result, i.e. the things I was not looking for, even trying to avoid using clever search terms. It's almost like it is only doing basic word matching or something now. Also, usually the first page is all blogspam SEO garbage now.

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#138

Post by labster » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

cosmojg wrote: post #102

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #74

https://www.google.com/search?q=plain+shirt https://www.amazon.com/s?k=plain+shirt on edit: https://www.google.com/search?q=shirt+-stripes

Ah, but you see, he specifically wants a shirt without stripes as dialectically opposed to a shirt with stripes. A plain shirt just won't do. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmJVsaxoQSw

If there's a dialectic here, does that mean there is a synthesis state between stripes and non-stripes? Is it polka dots?

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#139

Post by imprettycool » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

Ugohcet wrote: post #37

enumjorge wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you search for “shirt without stripes” you expect and hope to get shirts and t-shirts with stripes?

I would prefer results containing words "shirt", "stripes" and "without". I don't want search engines to freely interpret my query and guess what I probably wanted to see while burying exact results in hundreds of pages of useless garbage.

Exactly. If you want shirts without stripes then just search "shirt -stripes" (https://www.google.com/search?q=shirt+-stripes)

Re: Shirt Without Stripes

#140

Post by cachestash » Mon, Apr 20, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

Key question here, do all three even profess to using AI/ML in the search feature?