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Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

alec.fyi

191–200 of 207 posts

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this has been the case for a long time, years anyway. I don't know if it goes back quite as far as when they removed the '+' operator tho. But bejesus, this drives me nuts! If I know the double quotes function even exists, then Google should know I actually want to use it as intended - it shouldn't decide "yeah, but maybe you'd like these irrelevant results too!"

I think it’s primarily for people copying and pasting something like an error message, which may have user-specific data in quotes. That should be what “not many results for...” is for, but Google is always trying to optimize away those clicks. Maybe they could add a “programatic” search feature with documented syntax for power users.

I am always surprised that these systems are not more friendly to engineers, since they were built by them. You'd think for their own sakes they'd stick in a system like xkcd.com/806/

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#192

Last week I blocked every * .google.* domain on my network except "youtube-ui.l.google.com". Google Search: (1) ask a natural language question (since actual search is hobbled) (2) get unrelated garbage and ads back (3) blame yourself for "not being technical enough" to understand why the results aren't actually garbage. Google Search has deteriorated to the point that so far I haven't missed it at all .

Google still good for coding related searches

i think github code search is sometimes more helpful that google (when searching for specific examples in code)

github search has its own search operators:

https://docs.github.com/en/github/searching-for-information-...

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want, you can shoot me an email and I'll send a link to a page where I have them listed already. Not a blog post, and not much info about them, but I have a list. I just don't have a domain yet so I don't really want to go super public.

Sure thing, I've just emailed you.

Update: there is now a domain, the page can be found at

http://a-shared-404.com/other-stuff

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#197
post #25

A few corrections: The + (formerly used to force a term to be present in the result) and ~ (also find synonyms) operators have been deprecated. Google now advises to wrap the word in quotes instead of using the +. Google will also automatically look for synonyms without the use of ~. I have seen 'AROUND(n)' mentioned in many other places working as a proximity operator in Google, but I don't believe that is true and…

No longer have Google Chrome on any devices, switched over to Chromium Edge. Same browser, different overloads. Left the default search engine as Bing, but only because Duck Duck Go is useless for geographicly local search.

I don't know what they did but several weeks ago DDG got magically better at geographic local search (I do not live in the US and pound my head on that one too).

One day I actually DID need to find something local and so I dutifully typed my search into the FF url bar and hit enter. My default search is DDG but my brain stroked off for a second because the results that came back were 100% what I was looking for and I thought I was on Google. Give it a shot again, they're getting better.

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I understand you have an opinion that API design should be done in a certain way (by the way, by "API" I meant like method signatures, not network API, but it could be either). And I understand you disapprove of the word "deprecated" being used to refer to API that is discouraged, usually because it will be no longer supported/going away in the future. But that doesn't change the history of the word. The word "de…

You got a little repetitive there, but yes, I agree: "deprecated" means stop using this because it's going away.

I sure did!

Technically, it doesn't have to be because it's going away, although that is common. I think it always means there's a better recommended way to do the thing, but sometimes the deprecated way doesn't go away.

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever the first developer was that used "deprecated" got it kind of wrong, the word should have been "depreciated". Deprecate: "express disapproval of." Depreciate: "diminish in value over a period of time." I kind of cringe when other developers say "deprecated". Edit: Versioning and not removing APIs is kind of the way to go, so you don't break client apps that possibly can't be updated easily or at all. "Depreci…

You could not be more wrong if you practiced every day https://www.etymonline.com/word/deprecate#etymonline_v_29603

I appreciate the etymonline reference but I'm afraid you've been breaking the site guidelines quite badly in repeated comments such as this one and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24101885. We ban accounts that do that because we're trying for a bit better than internet-default outcomes on HN. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the spirit of this site more to heart? We'd be grateful.

Re: Dorking: the use of search engines to find very specific data

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No longer have Google Chrome on any devices, switched over to Chromium Edge. Same browser, different overloads. Left the default search engine as Bing, but only because Duck Duck Go is useless for geographicly local search.

Useless? "Plumber Timbuktu" returns plumbers in Timbuktu.

I'm on Launceston Tasmania, DDG returns results for Launceston Cornwall England.

I'll try again though as your sibling comment suggests it's improved.

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