Seriously, there was a time when Google seemed to know what I meant when I searched for something. It was kind of uncanny but damn was it useful.
These days when I specifically enter a set of search terms, it is not just not unheard of but quite common that Google will present me not just with search results that DON'T include one or more of my terms but actually the opposite of my terms.
Maybe I got older and missed changes in how Google works... possible. It's just at this point Google is nothing more than
I have the same problem with searching something on Amazon. I'd say that 95% of the time, the words I'm searching for aren't even in the items descriptions. Annoying as fuck to be searching for something very specific and then be shown things that aren't even in the same category at all.
Amazon search is embarassingly shit.
Try searching Search for a 10TB hard drive.
What % of results are 10Tb hard drives ?
FFS, Amazon, spend 0.01% of your cap. on FIXING HOW PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.
You need 1 tebibyte of storage and high longevity, so you get the extra for over provisioning, and on top of that you want to compensate for drives dishonestly being marketed by the amount of terabytes, instead of the more sensible tebibyte standard? And also you're completely insane.
The drive manufacturers had been messing with the well-established computer convention that "kilo" = 2^10 long before Euro-pedants like you gave them cover.
1024 bytes had been a kilobyte for a couple of generations before anyone decided they needed to fight over "misuse" of the prefix.
This query seems to work a little better https://www.amazon.com/s?k=10t... [amazon.com]
I think the sort order was making smaller drives appear first in the results. It's still a pretty bad experience though!
If you click my link, you will see that amazon automatically converted my search to "10TB".
So clever.
And yet so useless for what we actually want it to do.
And - worse - for what they, presumably, want it to do.
This is a TRILLION DOLLAR company, people.
The problem I have searching on Amazon is all the crap that gets loaded for them to push in my face before I can start entering search terms. Particularly on mobile.
Yeah, i used sire: for a while, but eventually decided it didn't make enough difference to be worth the effort of typing (and remembering)
Not like the old days when all the advanced google syntax would actually let you rapidly dial-in the results. Seems like their advanced options languished one they got decent natural-language search, and then their natural language search went rapidly downhill too.
There's alternate amazon search sites for pretty much this exact reason. I haven't researched how reputable places like jungle search are, but they do exist. Probably I'll take a closer look in the near future.
What I want is a simple browser plugin to redo a search with all FBA results removed. Amazon FBA is the place where all the counterfeit products that bought good reviews live. On top of that FBA protects sellers from bad reviews, so it's where the bad sellers live too.
One of my adblock or privacy plugins really does not play well with Amazon. Maybe its privacy badger. But anyhow after a few minutes the tab freezes solid. Reloading tab causes it to freeze again. It also seems to happen with Advance Auto Parts. After a few minutes it tells me their website is down for maintenance. Switch to a different browser and it works fine. Probably so much cross site tracking is breaking things.
I use privacy badger (in firefox) and have not had this issue on windows or linux. Maybe you're not blocking enough, rather than too much? Get some anti-scripting action going on, if you haven't. That should prevent endless loops.
Then there's Goodreads (owned now by Amazon). As I type my search string, the exact book I want appears at the top of the results preview. As soon as I stop typing, the results list is populated by some algorithm's guess about what I really want, pushing the correct result down 10 or 20 places. Every time.
I have the same problem with searching something on Amazon. I'd say that 95% of the time, the words I'm searching for aren't even in the items descriptions. Annoying as fuck to be searching for something very specific and then be shown things that aren't even in the same category at all.
Amazon seems completely oblivious to what Google has been fighting tooth and nail against for over a decade: assholes sabotaging search results attempting to profit.
NewEgg suffered the same problem for a while, but unlike Amazon, NewEgg took steps. For a while there, searching for a video card on NewEgg would get you mousepads and adhesive decals for computer cases. Now you get... video cards. It has been a breath of fresh air in a sea of useless shit. Unfortunately because of Amazon, NewEgg has had to
Gawd, I hate Amazon's search and it's even gotten worse recently. In the past couple of days I've noticed that they're throwing in items from my previous searches into my current search. It's bad enough that their search wasn't finding what I was asking for.
Usually I'm pretty specific in my searches and try to put a manufacturer name if I am able to. When I do I still get the products from a bunch of other manufacturers and any matches from any other categories. I then have to select a category from the sid
Google is close to useless (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, there was a time when Google seemed to know what I meant when I searched for something. It was kind of uncanny but damn was it useful.
These days when I specifically enter a set of search terms, it is not just not unheard of but quite common that Google will present me not just with search results that DON'T include one or more of my terms but actually the opposite of my terms.
Maybe I got older and missed changes in how Google works... possible. It's just at this point Google is nothing more than
Re:Google is close to useless (Score:5, Informative)
I have the same problem with searching something on Amazon. I'd say that 95% of the time, the words I'm searching for aren't even in the items descriptions. Annoying as fuck to be searching for something very specific and then be shown things that aren't even in the same category at all.
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Okay... "Why would you want 1.25 TB hard drives in the results?"?
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You need 1 tebibyte of storage and high longevity, so you get the extra for over provisioning, and on top of that you want to compensate for drives dishonestly being marketed by the amount of terabytes, instead of the more sensible tebibyte standard? And also you're completely insane.
Re:Google is close to useless (Score:4, Insightful)
The drive manufacturers had been messing with the well-established computer convention that "kilo" = 2^10 long before Euro-pedants like you gave them cover.
1024 bytes had been a kilobyte for a couple of generations before anyone decided they needed to fight over "misuse" of the prefix.
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Remove the space, so it reads "10TB". Then you'll find it.
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The problem I have searching on Amazon is all the crap that gets loaded for them to push in my face before I can start entering search terms. Particularly on mobile.
Re:Google is close to useless (Score:4, Insightful)
I've often found it easier to find something specific on Amazon, by searching Google, DuckDuckGo, etc. with "amazon.com" in the search terms.
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I have the same experience. Ditto with other sites like Home Depot, Walmarts, etc.
Site:Slashdot.org (Score:2)
The syntax site:homedepot.com does precisely what you want on Google.
For example, search immerman site:Slashdot.org
Leaving off the "site:" will include somw results that aren't on the site you're looking for, though typically it doesn't make a huge difference.
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Yeah, i used sire: for a while, but eventually decided it didn't make enough difference to be worth the effort of typing (and remembering)
Not like the old days when all the advanced google syntax would actually let you rapidly dial-in the results. Seems like their advanced options languished one they got decent natural-language search, and then their natural language search went rapidly downhill too.
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> Yeah, i used sire: for a while
I didn't even know they had syntax for Lancelot! Cool.
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Or is it genealogy?
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There's alternate amazon search sites for pretty much this exact reason. I haven't researched how reputable places like jungle search are, but they do exist. Probably I'll take a closer look in the near future.
What I want is a simple browser plugin to redo a search with all FBA results removed. Amazon FBA is the place where all the counterfeit products that bought good reviews live. On top of that FBA protects sellers from bad reviews, so it's where the bad sellers live too.
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One of my adblock or privacy plugins really does not play well with Amazon. Maybe its privacy badger. But anyhow after a few minutes the tab freezes solid. Reloading tab causes it to freeze again. It also seems to happen with Advance Auto Parts. After a few minutes it tells me their website is down for maintenance. Switch to a different browser and it works fine. Probably so much cross site tracking is breaking things.
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I use privacy badger (in firefox) and have not had this issue on windows or linux. Maybe you're not blocking enough, rather than too much? Get some anti-scripting action going on, if you haven't. That should prevent endless loops.
Re: Google (and Amazon and Goodreads) is close to (Score:2)
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I have the same problem with searching something on Amazon. I'd say that 95% of the time, the words I'm searching for aren't even in the items descriptions. Annoying as fuck to be searching for something very specific and then be shown things that aren't even in the same category at all.
Amazon seems completely oblivious to what Google has been fighting tooth and nail against for over a decade: assholes sabotaging search results attempting to profit.
NewEgg suffered the same problem for a while, but unlike Amazon, NewEgg took steps. For a while there, searching for a video card on NewEgg would get you mousepads and adhesive decals for computer cases. Now you get... video cards. It has been a breath of fresh air in a sea of useless shit. Unfortunately because of Amazon, NewEgg has had to
Re: (Score:2)
Gawd, I hate Amazon's search and it's even gotten worse recently. In the past couple of days I've noticed that they're throwing in items from my previous searches into my current search. It's bad enough that their search wasn't finding what I was asking for.
Usually I'm pretty specific in my searches and try to put a manufacturer name if I am able to. When I do I still get the products from a bunch of other manufacturers and any matches from any other categories. I then have to select a category from the sid
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It seems we are backsliding to the bad old days when the web first started, and there were no search engines.
Google, Amazon is racing as fast as they can to the bottom, and when they do hit bottom, they will just start digging to get even lower. >:(
I guess it's back to downloading a big offline database of websites, and using local search tools to find what you are looking for. :\