Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result • Hacker News Board

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#91

Post by mirkules » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 2:40 AM UTC

mahmud wrote: post #73

js2 wrote: post #29

A few years back, Sergey and Larry were on NPR's Fresh Air. At one point in the interview, Terry Gross says "I tried searching for 'Google' by putting 'Google' into the search box and clicking I'm Feeling Lucky, but it didn't seem to do anything." Larry tries to explain what happened, but it seemed to go over Terry's head. At one point during the explanation I think Sergey mentioned recursion, and Terry asks "Recur-w…

Wow, when I read Terry's name I could immediately hear her voice. But for the life of me I can't imagine what she looks like. But for Serge & Larry, I can't imagine what they sound like at all, though I "see" their faces.

The first time I heard Steve Jobs' voice a few months ago, I was really taken aback by how much of a nerdy voice he had. Strangely, I give him a lot more respect because of it. I imagined he would be one of those sly-talking, politician-types, but it really made me amazed at how much he was able to accomplish without "the voice."

P.S. Yes, I really heard his voice only a few months ago for the first time. I never watched any keynotes or anything like that.

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#92

Post by Eliezer » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 2:42 AM UTC

highace wrote: post #21

"Dogpile.com makes searching the Web easy, because it has all the best search engines piled into one." My brain just exploded.

A leftover from the era when searching was about "Do you have the page in your index? Can you find it at all?" and not "Which of these 10,000 results should I return first?"

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#93

Post by daspecster » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 2:56 AM UTC

bing.com has yahoo at the top haha. http://www.bing.com/search?q=search&go=&qs=n&sk=...

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#94

Post by dholowiski » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 3:08 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #18

This is ancient, it's been like this since before I joined Google, which was before Bing came out. I think back then Dogpile was #1 (??), then Yahoo, then MSN Live. Occasionally it comes up and people get a good chuckle out of it.

So honestly, shouldn't google show up as the top result for search? Does the fact that it doesn't prove that Google does, occasionally manually 'fudge' search results?

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#95

Post by FreeWorld » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 3:19 AM UTC

dholowiski wrote: post #94

nostrademons wrote: post #18

This is ancient, it's been like this since before I joined Google, which was before Bing came out. I think back then Dogpile was #1 (??), then Yahoo, then MSN Live. Occasionally it comes up and people get a good chuckle out of it.

So honestly, shouldn't google show up as the top result for search? Does the fact that it doesn't prove that Google does, occasionally manually 'fudge' search results?

Well, why would google put itself as the top search result, when you are already on google search. And also, recently, there was some complaint (don't remember exactly who filed the complaint) about the anti-competitive movement of google when it comes to always showing google maps results when searching for locations. Anyhow, just my view of this.

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#96

Post by dredmorbius » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 3:52 AM UTC

officemonkey wrote: post #33

Vivtek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there was a brief window in the mid-90's when Dogpile was definitely in the top 2. It replaced Metacrawler as my main search for a few months, as I recall.

I used Altavista right up until I first heard of Google. Before Altavista I used Webcrawler ( http://thinkpink.com/bp/WebCrawler/History.html ).

ObMeToo WRT AltaVista.

Though I think it was Yahoo or Lycos before that. Webcrawler possible.

Man ... back in the day ....

My introduction to AltaVista was when it was still a DEC project. It was a tour-de-force demo of the first 64-bit Unix (or was it VMS?), which allowed AV to load the entire search index into memory. Its claim to fame was speed, back before relevance mattered (now we're mostly back to speed).

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#97

Post by bluesmoon » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 3:54 AM UTC

MikeCapone wrote: post #85

uxp wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another non-cited story I've heard is an A/B test, or similar, was once done where they removed the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button from the front page, and an overwhelming number of users said they did not like the solitary search button. Having both gave the users a sense of choice, even though (as the story goes), "I'm feeling lucky" is used by only a small fraction of a percent of users.

I agree that it looks better with two buttons, though I can't quite articulate why.

this is so because we instinctively feel unbalanced when we see a single legged object rather than a two legged one. we'd feel similarly unbalanced if the two legs (the buttons) were of very different widths.

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#98

Post by pawelwentpawel » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 3:55 AM UTC

Pretty sure that they know about it. Just shows the google's strong position on the market - then can show bing.com as the first result and still remain the first-choice web search engine ever created.

Not sure whats up with the "feeling lucky" button as if you type something to the input box, it redirects you straight to the live search. You cannot really specify what do you want feel lucky about ;)

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#99

Post by joe_the_user » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 4:12 AM UTC

uxp wrote: post #76

ja2ke wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side note: With results-as-you-type now being the default even from the Google front page, isn't "I'm feeling lucky" a totally vestigial button at this point?

Another non-cited story I've heard is an A/B test, or similar, was once done where they removed the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button from the front page, and an overwhelming number of users said they did not like the solitary search button. Having both gave the users a sense of choice, even though (as the story goes), "I'm feeling lucky" is used by only a small fraction of a percent of users.

And humorously enough, the present "I'm feeling lucky" button literally cannot be pressed ... except on the initial, empty search box ... under which circumstances it leads you to ... a list old Google Doodles... Feelin' Lucky now? Guy...

Re: Putting "Search" into Google yields a surprising result

#100

Post by Vivtek » Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 4:15 AM UTC

glassx wrote: post #57

coderholic wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh you're bringing back memories. I was av.com (altavista) before google, and yahoo.com before that. It's easy to forget how much search engines sucked before google.

Same here! But I remember using Altavista for a long time after switching to Google because of Babelfish (translator0 and Image Search (was it Altavista?) Today I use DuckDuckGo a lot.

Yup, that was Altavista.