181–190 of 219 posts
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Yes, I know about about /ncr but its hard/impossible to set that on a mobile device Also, it only works sometimes.
As yet another aside, has anyone else noticed how it is pretty much impossible to set SafeSearch to off without being logged in? Trying to set the cookie just does not seem to stick
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"But here's why some people probably don't like personalization: It's invisible. There is nothing on the results page that tells you whether your results are personalized or not." Sorry, this is just not the case: we do provide indication on Google's search results page for personalized results. Here's a couple links that talk about how we surface whether results have been personalized: http://www.google.com/support/…
I'm sorry, but a "View Customizations" link is nowhere near as clear as a simple statement like "These search results have been personalized." right on top of the search results page, where you can't miss it. But the real solution is to use a search engine that does not track you. Even better is to use it in such a way that it can't track you (ie. through a Tor proxy, while taking other reasonable precautions).
Over time, we saw that people didn't seem to notice/care about the message and corresponding link much, so it eventually migrated down to the bottom of the search results.
Shame on DDG for endorsing this nonsense. I understand the quest for a larger userbase but please don't use this sort of FUD that is being peddled by those who don't understand the technical aspects of search and are trying to sell their books. A search engine's prime function is to filter the millions of results for each query down to the most relevant results for each individual user, and never the same 10 results…
Oh, you know, maybe using Google's much vaunted "PageRank" algorithm, which is supposed to take in to account things such as links on other pages back to the page being considered for inclusion in the search results.. the more such links there are, the better the rank is supposed to be.
The above description is obviously an oversimplification, and I don't have access to Google's PageRank algorithm anyway, so couldn't tell you what it actually was if I wanted to, but it's something along those lines, and need not take in to account your previous search history in any way or "personalize" the search for you.
Confirmation bias is bad enough already, it's really a shame that powerful companies like Google reinforces it just for the sake of giving you more pleasing search results. (Pleasing and Good overlap, but they're not equal.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias http://lesswrong.com/lw/iw/positive_bias_look_into_the_dark/ Edit: I didn't intend to bash Google specifically. But they are faced with a choice in…
Shame on DDG for endorsing this nonsense. I understand the quest for a larger userbase but please don't use this sort of FUD that is being peddled by those who don't understand the technical aspects of search and are trying to sell their books. A search engine's prime function is to filter the millions of results for each query down to the most relevant results for each individual user, and never the same 10 results…
I think you missed the point. Yes DDG ranks, but it may rank differently. Of course, there is an implicit slam on them here: instead of showing you what you want the vast majority of the time, they show you other stuff. This is good on occasion (so you don't live in an echo chamber), but if this was all the time it would mean lower quality search results for simple things.
- Search for term on DDG - Look at results, find nothing - Try to find better term - Give up and use original term in Google - Find result
I tried to use DDG exclusively two time (once 8 months ago, once ~4 months ago), but the result was the same. I don't know how much personalization affects this, but Google just gives me the best results.
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I'm sorry, but a "View Customizations" link is nowhere near as clear as a simple statement like "These search results have been personalized." right on top of the search results page, where you can't miss it. But the real solution is to use a search engine that does not track you. Even better is to use it in such a way that it can't track you (ie. through a Tor proxy, while taking other reasonable precautions).
In case you missed where I said this below, we did launch a message on the top-right of the search results page. The Search Engine Land article had a snapshot, but here's a direct link to what it looked like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/searchengineland/2717951328/ Over time, we saw that people didn't seem to notice/care about the message and corresponding link much, so it eventually migrated down to the bottom of t…
Instead, you could have tried to make it more prominent by (for instance) moving it to the upper left rather than the upper right of the search results, right above/below the ads.
Another issue that might be interesting to explore is to what extent users really understand what search customization is, and whether they'd care more or less about it being done automatically once they understood it better.
I have a feeling the vast majority of them probably wouldn't care, and take the attitude of "do whatever it takes to make the results you return more relevant, and I don't really care how."
I spent a few hours using Duck Duck Go before commenting. It's been my Chrome default search for 4 hours. • The results are less relevant. Bubble or no, it was harder to find things I look for all the time. For example I had to constantly add the word Seattle to my search terms. • It felt like an old search engine. The results, the display, the choice of Mapquest maps all made me feel like I was using Yahoo or even e…
Ironically, I do use the ddg bang (!) operators quite often. ...like !gm or !gi if I know I want a map or image (for example)
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But why on earth do you persistently try to present German search results to an English speaker in Munich? This has been peeve #1 for years , across all Google services.
Good question; one person is annoyed by this endlessly a few offices down from me. It's hard to make sure that things are handled consistently sometimes, but if you use google.com/ncr or the "Google.com in English" link at the bottom of the home page, that should help. The "Language tools" link to the right of the search box should also let you set a cookie with your language preference.
For YEARS, on a weekly and sometimes daily basis, always logged-in, always with preferences set to english, it is infuriating to routinely end up receiving results that conflict with your explicit language settings.
What, concretely, do we have to do to get someone at google to push a change from using cookies to a real user-setting to fix this absurdity?
You said they did it for speed. Giving me completely incorrect results in a language I can't even read 1 millisecond faster than giving me results that I actually care about is a win? This is over-optimization.
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I think you missed the point. Yes DDG ranks, but it may rank differently. Of course, there is an implicit slam on them here: instead of showing you what you want the vast majority of the time, they show you other stuff. This is good on occasion (so you don't live in an echo chamber), but if this was all the time it would mean lower quality search results for simple things.
This is exactly why I stopped using DDG as my main search engine. My workflow was often like this: - Search for term on DDG - Look at results, find nothing - Try to find better term - Give up and use original term in Google - Find result I tried to use DDG exclusively two time (once 8 months ago, once ~4 months ago), but the result was the same. I don't know how much personalization affects this, but Google just give…