annoying search engines

[Admin]

Is it just me, or is Google and Bing often ignoring half the keywords in a search query?

[Gertlex]

Yup. This has been a problem for a while. Google it and you'll find there's a way to force (google at least) all keywords to be required for identification.

And it's always the most important word that Google skips...

[Admin]

Yup. This has been a problem for a while. Google it and you'll find there's a way to force (google at least) all keywords to be required for identification.

How?

(yea, I've noticed it for a month now, but was hoping it would just go away)

[Soeren]

Hi,

Googles answer:
Do a normal search.
On the results page, click "Search Tools"
Click "All results" and click the "Verbatim" (at the bottom of the box).

Unfortunately, I did a test and "All results" got me 2.3 mio links while the "Verbatim" got me 6.54 mio links but sometimes it helps a little

Another thing that may be helpful is using Intext:"search term"

Perhaps Google has reached the "Use Before date". They more or less disintegrated Alta Vista back in time, perhaps we're gonna see a new star shooting in the near future.

[Gertlex]

Less lazy this morning

This is the link I usually end up finding when I search for something like 'force google to use all terms'
http://ask.metafilter.com/181167/Google-is-driving-me-nuts

Which suggests:

Code: [Select]

allintext: words to search for
That said, I haven't really tested it. Reading again, just now, that might specifically force Google to show results that have your queries in the main body of the text (and not the title lines, etc?).

I've yet to actually fix it for myself... A few weeks ago, I modified a userscript to add Google Scholar as an option in Google's top-bar... it stopped working about a week later. 

[Admin]

I've played around with it, and Soerens suggestion worked.

Also, I found putting each word in quotes does the job.

For example, '"kato" "bass" "III"' does a much better job than 'kato bass III'.

I also found repeating important words in the search helps.


------------

As for scholar, I just manually change the url as such:
https://www.google.com/search?q=squirrel
https://www.google.com/scholar?q=squirrel

(why Google hides/neglects scholar is beyond me)

Speaking of which, I recently discovered google citations. It's absolutely amazingly useful, and a huge benefit to science, but it's hidden and few people know about it:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9lhrrPIAAAAJ

I use it to tell me when new papers on published on subjects I'm interested in, to track authors that I follow, etc.

Now only if Google would actually update the citations more than once a year . . .

[Gertlex]

As for scholar, I just manually change the url as such:
https://www.google.com/search?q=squirrel
https://www.google.com/scholar?q=squirrel

(why Google hides/neglects scholar is beyond me)

Bah, that's too much effort!   I prefer doing: ctrl+L; tab; type search terms; ctrl+arrow keys to select search engine as needed; alt+enter for a new tab; and then clicking on what I want with the mouse. (google images is nicely accessible this way)

Also regarding squirrels, apparently this annoying search engine thing is called 'fuzzy searching'; presumably a la fuzzy logic.

Speaking of which, I recently discovered google citations. It's absolutely amazingly useful, and a huge benefit to science, but it's hidden and few people know about it:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9lhrrPIAAAAJ

I use it to tell me when new papers on published on subjects I'm interested in, to track authors that I follow, etc.

Now only if Google would actually update the citations more than once a year . . .

Doesn't have me, and I have two publications :/

I'm a fan of Zotero, which I can use to manage citations, and sync annotated PDFs between my computers.  This will be especially nice if I get a Surface tablet in a couple months...

[Admin]

Doesn't have me, and I have two publications :/

You can add yourself to it.

I'm a fan of Zotero, which I can use to manage citations, and sync annotated PDFs between my computers.

When I say citations, I mean it finds all the papers that reference your paper.
(not the citations referenced in your paper)

[Soeren]

Hi,

Which suggests:

Code: [Select]

allintext: words to search for
That said, I haven't really tested it.

I just stumbled upon the allintext: myself and here's an example:

laser scanner robot
Lead to "About 2,960,000 results (0.15 seconds)"

allintext:laser scanner robot
Lead to "About 3,030,000 results (0.18 seconds) "
Worse actually

But curiosly, I mistyped it the first time (S instead X) and
allintest:laser scanner robot
Lead to "About 213 results (0.16 seconds)"

I have no explanation to offer on why that is so, but they may have a spelling error somewhere


BTW. There shouldn't be a space between Allintext: and the first search term