Google search results not what they used to be? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mc172
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 10:14:34 am
content: I've been noticing this for a while now. I was trying to find a picture of a stack of plates with different surface coatings being dunked in the sea to show a colleague and haven't been able to find it. It may have been deleted but the picture itself or the fact that I can't find it isn't my point.For instance, search for "marine corrosion testing" with quotation marks. The first page of Google says that it has found about 5,480 results.https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22marine+corrosion+testing%22The "Gooooooooogle" bit at the bottom shows four pages of results, which is a bit odd since at ten per page that's a maximum of 40 results.Well, when you go to the fourth page it shows no results on that page. So, you go back to the third page and it says it has found about 26 results. Repeating the search with omitted results included returns 39 results. What's going on? It seems even worse on the mobile version. I have probably answered my own question in my mind: Google wants to show you things that generate revenue...?BTW: I'm not actually interested in results for "marine corrosion testing", more the fact that I'm finding it harder to come across the things I'm searching for.

author: TheDane
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 10:32:21 am
content: It's nothing new, at least to me.When I google, and the results are in the millions - google will often show duplicates. Later on it will remove most copies - and inform me below:"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the '#shown' already displayed.If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included. "

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 05:46:12 pm
content: I was about to start a thread on this too, the search engine and Chrome have been a bit stupid lately. I was searching for something and at first it seemed eager to auto correct my results into the wrong thing. Then when I changed it I kept getting only a few irrelavent results. Turns out I had made a minor spelling mistake of a simple word (ie to ei) yet it was unable to correct it and complete the search.Then I went searching for something in German and it kept offering to translate the page...in image search (IE it was attacking the search box).EDIT: the others were also image searches

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 07:09:37 pm
content: One thing that sometimes helps is to click "Tools" then change "All Results" to "Verbatim". That terms off some of the extrapolation that it normally does and restricts results to those that more closely resemble the exact search terms.

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 07:53:32 pm
content: The 'collapse' in the number of search hits has been there for a very long time. I've never been able to decide if the initial high number is real or if Google is just lying. Then when you start digging through the list, they realize you're serious and give you the real number. Whatever.Quote from: ajb on January 04, 2018, 07:09:37 pmI use this a lot in my searches, but I've found that it doesn't apply to image search. I've also found that sometimes itincreasesthe number of search hits. Don't ask me how that's possible!A couple of other features I often use are <site:eevblog.com> to search one site and <filetype:pdf> to specify the filetype. There are other filetypes it recognizes, but it seems like pdf is the only one I ever use. Here's a list:https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35287?hl=enHere's a list of the search operators that Google supports:https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=enEd

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 08:13:40 pm
content: I've noticed a steady decline in the quality of the search results for years, I suspect they are constantly tweaking their algorithms in order to funnel more people into their advertisers. Remember that Google is at its core an advertising company, their products are almost all a sort of trojan horse.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 08:16:04 pm
content: Yes.

author: MT
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 10:36:39 pm
content: ""Mee too""I use duckduckgo due to Googles "filtering" and i always get a more "complete" search picture.

author: mc172
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2018, 11:00:06 pm
content: Well I'm glad it's not just me!I never knew about DuckDuckGo so thanks for that - I'll check it out.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 12:20:05 am
content: Its my understanding that they get their search results from Google.Its more valuable in terms of marketability when compiling info on ausers'er"aggregate group"search queries to have info like the ones that that person (or aggregate group) wanted to "keep private".

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 01:04:26 am
content: I've noticed it too, and as something more EE-relevant, searching for obscure part numbers, part markings, datasheets, schematics, and service manuals (NOT the useless luser-manuals it keeps wanting to show) has gotten much worse.It rewrites, compresses, and mangles your query in order to, in their words, "provide more relevant results". They presumably do this to make search "more human", which is true --- it's now as useless as the typical clueless idiot shop assistant. If you're searching for trivial popular stuff, it works. If you're searching for more obscure and valuable information, it's complete bullshit.No, I do not believe for one second that the whole Internet has only 5,480 pages containing the exact phrase "marine corrosion testing", or even less. It should be more like in the 10000s range....and what's worse, if you try to make lots of slightly different queries (common when searching for SMD part markings and the like), Google will block you for "suspicious activity" and show you a CAPTCHA that a lot of the times doesn't even work.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 01:19:30 am
content: It seems aweful for technical information sometimes. Although some of it you're experiencing might be country related, especially captchas and stuff (I've never seen that).

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 07:44:48 am
content: Quote from: cdev on January 05, 2018, 12:20:05 amYes, many of these pages are a sort of proxy for Google that anonymize your searcher for Google. That last bit is important, because DuckDuckGo still has all the dirt on you. You will need to trust someone somewhere.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 08:13:52 am
content: Frankly I'd trust just about any company more than Google for the simple fact that Google is *huge* and has been on a mission for many years now to accumulate the largest and most detailed collection of information on the planet. They have their tentacles in nearly every aspect of our lives in one way or another to an extent that few other companies could hope to match.

author: gibbled
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 08:40:30 pm
content: Another vote here for duckduckgo...

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2018, 11:45:02 pm
content: Quote from: evb149 on January 05, 2018, 04:13:03 amIt is called Gopher net.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2018, 01:09:25 am
content: I also feel that search engine results have gone down over the past decade. It's probably also related to the fact that everyone is pushing SEO very hard and obscuring the actually uselful little sites with original information.Quote from: Cyberdragon on January 05, 2018, 01:19:30 amDitto. Duckduckgo is fine most days, but often useless for error codes and error messages. A quick switch to Google provides some more literal results.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2018, 01:47:11 am
content: Quote from: james_s on January 04, 2018, 08:13:40 pmand/or constantly tweaking their algorithm to combat the search engine optimizers that try to cheat

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2018, 01:49:49 am
content: yep.. I'm finding google is getting noticably worse in the last year or two.It's taken years, but their poor overworked algorithms are being overrun by bullshit spam sites and link farms... because there is so much money to be made in messing up their search results and delivering what a marketer wants you to see rather than what you want to see.google's own adword stuff is at least kept up the top, and marked as not a normal search result.

author: The Soulman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2018, 05:54:20 pm
content: Quote from: evb149 on January 05, 2018, 04:13:03 amExactly, how hard can that be??Google to me doesn't provide much useful results anymore, worse they are buried by (to me) garbage look alike results.Tried duckduckgo and even with altered settings it keeps auto "correcting" my search inquiry into something much more mainstream.Anyone else has suggestions?

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 12:10:09 am
content: I was searching for something to help in another thread...and sure enough, got horrible results from Google. So I switched to Yahoo and it was like night and day. MYTH CONFIRMED! Google's search system is an utterly stupid piece of bullshit!Just look...Exhibit A, Google:https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=675&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=OFxRWrbgNc2N_Qb85aeoDg&q=industrial+glass+lightning+arrester&oq=industrial+glass+lightning+arrester&gs_l=psy-ab.3...61357.62358.0.63056.6.6.0.0.0.0.161.661.0j5.5.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.1.112...0i24k1.0.MhGP8mG9K_I#imgrc=_Exhibit B, Yahoo:https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVxszYlFaPdsA5SJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=industrial+glass+lightning+arrester&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t#id=28&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.weirdstuff.com%2Faltimages1%2F392517.jpg&action=closeGoogle: thinks lightning arrester = lightning rod!Yahoo: Understands that lightning arrester = surge arrester

author: mc172
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 12:40:09 am
content: It's worse than I thought! Cheers for that - it further confirms my suspicions.

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 03:24:28 am
content: I see very similar parts in both cases. Are you sure old cookies or previous searches aren't messing with your results? If the wife has been looking for ornaments, Google may decide you're all about that.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 03:55:39 am
content: Quote from: Mr. Scram on January 07, 2018, 03:24:28 amI'm single, and this was in incognito window (I do most searching in incognito to try to avoid this). So is Google not giving you lightning rods at all? It's also not about whether it found them at all, because, yes, I still see a few relevant results in Google, but only about 10% correct for me. Whereas Yahoo found about 90% correct results.It seems Google just gives you images that just happened to be on a page that mentioned something remotely similar to what you searched, while Yahoo is far more literal. I mean, if you're just browsing around for a broad topic, this randomness of Google is sometimes ok because it can allow you to discover new similar things. But, if you're searching for something specific, it's really annoying.

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 04:05:26 am
content: Quote from: Cyberdragon on January 07, 2018, 03:55:39 amGoogle gives me lighting rods, along the other items that Yahoo gives me.Incognito does little. It does eliminate cookies, but Google seems to have many more detection methods. Just your IP gives you away, and probably your specific browser and OS combination and configuration too. The latter is called fingerprinting. Google tends to look at and collect network names too.Unless you take various precautions and are very careful and deliberate, it's unlikely Google can't connect you to previous searches. It's pretty much what they do for a living and they happen to be very good at it.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 04:24:50 am
content: I have been having some problems, but suspect it is not all Googles fault. There is an explosion of crap pages out there, with a lot of them driven by people who are very clever at getting the Google algorithms to link their site. That adds to Google's own efforts at directing traffic to their advertisers. Several years ago I was forced to learn Googles rules for writing search expressions to improve my results.Use of other services with different search algorithms might help by avoiding the "site tuners" but that is a temporary fix at best. As soon as someone gets good enough to attract market share they will get their own flock of remora.

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 04:53:19 am
content: Quote from: The Soulman on January 06, 2018, 05:54:20 pmYes, I'm sure allowing users to run arbitrary regexes across the entire corpus of the internet is totally simple to implement and not a tremendously inefficient use of computational and storage resources.Here's a little experiment: Pick an arbitrary technical topic. Open an incognito window and start typing it into Google, letter by letter, and note what suggestions pop up as you type. Start with the word "electronic", maybe. How many letters do you have to type before it starts suggesting anything reasonable? What does that tell you about the relative popularity of that term?Simply put, the vast majority of search engine users are not looking for specific, obscure technical terms in particular combinations. They're using vaguely- or naturally-worded phrases that describe the general idea of what they're looking for. So of course search engines are going to focus on processing searches like that. Something else to consider, particularly regarding obscure part numbers and texts etc: There may simply not be that much indexable information out there! Lots of sites go dark over time, so especially when looking for older materials, there's a good chance that many references simply don't exist any more, and the information isn't sufficiently relevant for anyone to produce new references. Obviously if you manage to find it on one search engine but not another, that's clearly a deficiency in the search engine, but more obscure terms are more susceptible to simple information entropy, and short of archiving *everything* there's not a good remedy for that.

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 05:40:04 am
content: general search:https://duckduckgo.comtechnical stuff:https://www.yandex.com(also has email better than shitty sensored gmail, translator, and a map service)chinese software / datasheets etc.https://www.baidu.com

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 07:09:53 am
content: I google something at work, find a hit on the first page. I go home, run the exact same query and can't find the same hit. Drives me totally nuts.Duckduckgo I use but it does suck, it keeps returning bullshit datasheets and PDF's linked to bait websites. Some are close to malware.I used (((Startpage))) for a long time until all the hits became personal and so I ditched it. It is tracking, obviously.

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2018, 08:56:09 am
content: duck can be configured, there is a page listing the options.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 12:02:28 am
content: Much of the Google search engine problems derive from Google trying to implement an AI 'censor'. They pretend it's to 'rate truth', but really they are attempting to build an AI that understands politics, and search-hides all content that doesn't conform to the views of Google internal culture and particularly Google management. Which is hard core Globalist, leftist-SJW and racist anti-white. Google has become a freaky cult.So of course Google search engine is seriously bent and only going to get worse. Until Google is forcibly dismantled.Amusing that immediately after Trump issues an executive order declaring a national emergency to combat human rights abuse, corruption and human trafficking (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-involved-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/), Alphabet's Eric Schmidt (Mr 'our AI is magic') suddenly steps down as Alphabet CEO. I'm sure it's just totally coincidence and nothing to do with the part about confiscation of all assets in any way linked to the listed crimes. Or the massive number (10,000?) of sealed indictments pending. Or the ongoing large buildup of facilities at Gitmo.If you want clear proof that Google is playing AI-political censorship games with search results, see pic.(Which I just created from search screenshots I did just now. Search suggestion texts not photoshopped, though I moved graphics around a bit for a compact fit.) Links included are selected from a much longer list.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 01:51:34 am
content: Same search for me led to "crybaby", "awesome", and "alien".

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 02:06:28 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on January 10, 2018, 12:02:28 amholy crap, dude.Anyway - the's 2 issues with google's search results..1) the act of sorting relevant hits needing so much work is not that they are trying to "censor" anything (I find most people old privileged white people screaming censorship have NFI what censorship even is, but that's for another day) but that their search result positions are commercially and politically very valuable and so very smart and very well paid people work day and night to understated and then game any system they have in place, to further their employees agenda... be it large corporations or political organisations... The act of filtering or curating the content is in fact an act of *UN*scrambling the damage done to what should otherwise be pure search results by vested interests.2) Google are an ad company at the end of the day. That's how they make money, by getting people to see ads. In order to be more effective they need to be able to understand market segments to appeal to marketers (their customers) that want to advertise to market segments - and they need a bunch of regular viewers eyes in various market segments (their product) to sell.... SO they need to detect user preferences in order to do market segmentation.. Then also pander to their interests in order to have them use the service more so their market segmented eyes can be sold more. FB is exactly the same, so is anything else big that lots of people use and has ads built into it. This is a huge huge problem, basically creating virtual ghettos for people in different ideological groups that end up only seeing information targeted to them or by people like them, and over time this causes those divisions to become more magnified as this system shifts to more and more extreme/purified versions of their basic ideologies over time as the content targeted for search ability and search results and behaviours evolve.A far bigger problem than tech companies with automated information curation algorithms is the actual people who will support any ideology to the death, no matter what as long as it's "their side" that's winning or right..... The kind of people who promote and believe a made up story about a paedophile ring in a pizza shop that results in an assault rifle carrying wingnut running in to "self-investigate" and could easily have ended up with a bunch of innocent people getting shot dead... then, a few months later, turn around and vehemently support the election of Roy Moore, an ACTUAL paedophile (or at very least ACTUAL underage child abuser, if you want to dig into semantics) to office in the US.

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 03:36:33 am
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on January 10, 2018, 02:06:28 amyou have no evidence that was made up, it wasnt even investigated and the laptop of one of the people involved has become more elusive than the roswell "weather balloon"you just chose not to believe it because of the implications.i suggest you look into a guy called Larry Franklin.a good search pattern would be "larry franklin affair"(or you could take the blue pill and forget all about this post!)

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 05:08:19 am
content: Quote from: stj on January 10, 2018, 03:36:33 amNow you mention it, has anyone ever seen that laptop and the Roswell weather balloon in the same room at the same time??I'm not saying that the laptop may just well BE the Roswell weather balloon, and its garaged in the dungeon under a paedophile pizza shop that has no dungeon under it, but I'm not saying it's not either.think about it! you can't prove its not!ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED, SHEEPLE!

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2018, 05:19:44 am
content: i'm pretty sure the laptop is with the corrupt FBI, and the "weather balloon" is at an airforce-base.nobody would trust the FBI with a "weather balloon",and nobody would trust the airforce with a laptop!