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Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

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Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#61

Post by rhizome »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #21
_pghu wrote: post #5

And, of course, the "search for what I actually fucking typed" mode is completely undiscoverable, hidden behind another click, and which can't be defaulted into. This is a good bandaid, but is still a bandaid. I have still switched away from Google to a search engine that will actually search for what I told it to, not one that thinks it can guess my meaning. (Not to mention one that doesn't wrap all the outgoing URL…

For the vast majority of users, things like spelling correction are a huge help. Roughly 10% of all queries are misspelled. Switching the default to "search for exactly what I typed" would hurt those users and lead to more spam and malware for the average user. We try to find the balance that helps users the most, and searching for a term with "term" or the literal mode provides an escape hatch for power users.

For that 10% figure to be meaningful, we'd need to know how many people are trying to search for something precise and not receiving it.

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#62

Post by tamersalama »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #59
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

I know that a lot of people were sad that we switched from +word to "word" to do an exact match for a word. The good news is that we're rolling out a "literal mode" that will search for exactly the words you typed. It does a verbatim match with your words, so it turns off things like spelling corrections, stemming, synonyms, optionalized terms, and so on. I think we saw multiple proposals for this on Hacker News, so…

Out of curiosity, how does google judge search result quality? It seems as though search is trending toward the idea that more results are better, when usually the opposite is true.

A bit speculative: this is more related to Ad revenue. A wider spectrum of search results means more Ad variety and the ability to serve more advertisers per search query.

I'm annoyed by Google's search quality by the day. I'm starting to use DuckDuckGo more (unless there are other alternatives).

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#63

Post by tamersalama »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

I know that a lot of people were sad that we switched from +word to "word" to do an exact match for a word. The good news is that we're rolling out a "literal mode" that will search for exactly the words you typed. It does a verbatim match with your words, so it turns off things like spelling corrections, stemming, synonyms, optionalized terms, and so on. I think we saw multiple proposals for this on Hacker News, so…

Why aren't you allowing for both; The original +prefix as well as the quotes?

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#64

Post by rhizome »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #53
anjc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain how exactly the + operator is used incorrectly? I know that personally i often end up with bizarre looking searches, purely because i know what i'm searching for. e.g. it might include purposeful spelling mistakes, requiring the plus to avoid autocorrection...but this doesn't mean i'm using the + incorrectly. I just can't imagine somebody, potentially, understanding boolean logic, describing a searc…

I'm at a conference and can't easily get on our internal VPN from here, but I'll try to remember to circle back around when I can get on our VPN. But in general, you see a lot of stuff that looks like semi-random punctuation just sprinkled at the beginning of the query or throughout the query, things that look like people are using plus instead of space as if they're copying from an address bar, etc.

To be sure, Google search used to allow the period to force a connection between terms. "foo bar baz" == foo.bar.baz

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#65

Post by recursive »

rickmb wrote: post #22

Does anybody else feel somewhat uncomfortable to live in a world where people who a) know how to spell and b) actually want a search engine to search what they are looking for are considered "edge cases/power users"? I've always laughed at the idea of the internet and search engines making people dumber, but this seems like hard evidence. Most Google users are too stupid to have ever been able to use a library...

> actually want a search engine to search what they are looking for are considered "edge cases/power users"?

Arguably synonyms and word stemming still are what they are looking for. You could easily argue that one either way.

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#67

Post by bambax »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

I know that a lot of people were sad that we switched from +word to "word" to do an exact match for a word. The good news is that we're rolling out a "literal mode" that will search for exactly the words you typed. It does a verbatim match with your words, so it turns off things like spelling corrections, stemming, synonyms, optionalized terms, and so on. I think we saw multiple proposals for this on Hacker News, so…

Although "sad" with where Google search is (was) going isn't the right term, I am now very much unpissed, so many many thanks for this.

How is "literal mode" different from what "allintext:" promised? And is there an option to turn this on permanently?

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#68

Post by bambax »

brador wrote: post #10
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

I know that a lot of people were sad that we switched from +word to "word" to do an exact match for a word. The good news is that we're rolling out a "literal mode" that will search for exactly the words you typed. It does a verbatim match with your words, so it turns off things like spelling corrections, stemming, synonyms, optionalized terms, and so on. I think we saw multiple proposals for this on Hacker News, so…

This isn't really the solution we were looking for Matt. Can we replace the + operator with something else? How about¬? We don't use that very often to the point I don't even know what it's called, but it's there on the keyboard in one keypress.

> This isn't really the solution we were looking for

What? Yes, yes it is. Please don't take it away now!

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#69

Post by mladenkovacevic »

101000101 wrote: post #35
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, usage of the + operator has been in steady decline for years. With Altavista you had to use + to require a word. When I started at Google, many many more queries had tons of pluses. Google's demographic was much more tech-savvy in the early years, but as we've struck partnerships with companies like AOL, the population of people searching on Google has become broader. I don't believe that 95.5% of users wil…

You seem to be suggesting that Google's new demographic will never become more tech savvy or at least not "any time soon". That's an interesting view. I'm just a bit more optimistic.

I don't think there is any motivation for people at large to become more "tech-savvy". It's rather the case of machines becoming more human-savvy.. and I don't really see anything wrong with that.

Re: Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms

#70

Post by bambax »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #21
_pghu wrote: post #5

And, of course, the "search for what I actually fucking typed" mode is completely undiscoverable, hidden behind another click, and which can't be defaulted into. This is a good bandaid, but is still a bandaid. I have still switched away from Google to a search engine that will actually search for what I told it to, not one that thinks it can guess my meaning. (Not to mention one that doesn't wrap all the outgoing URL…

For the vast majority of users, things like spelling correction are a huge help. Roughly 10% of all queries are misspelled. Switching the default to "search for exactly what I typed" would hurt those users and lead to more spam and malware for the average user. We try to find the balance that helps users the most, and searching for a term with "term" or the literal mode provides an escape hatch for power users.

Although now is not the time to be picky (to be thankful, rather), why not simply let logged in users default to literal search, while still displaying the "did you mean" suggestions somewhere on the page...?
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