Google has jumped the shark.

hmurchison · January 29, 2004 11:50AM

More and more Google is not returning the results I need. All too often now I get a bunch of commercial sites when I want the actually manufacturer

My search for "Aldo Shoes"

Returns directories and commercial sites. This is not an isolated incident. Googles usefullness is starting to wane. They're losing focus and what I once perceived as an unbreachable position by Google is now precarious. I do think Microsoft could develop something to beat Google now. I'm very disappointed in Google right now. What say ye?

torifile · January 29, 2004 11:54AM

I'm not sure there's anything nefarious going on with your google search. As I understand it, google looks at all the sites that link to a particular one and ranks those accordingly. http://www.google.com/technology/index.html . I think it's just the way things work with their technology.

That said, I never use anything but google for my searches. It's fast and uncluttered. If something better comes along, I'll use that instead.

hmurchison · January 29, 2004 11:57AM

MF'er!

please move to General Discussion.

stupider...likeafox · January 29, 2004 12:31PM

You really have to distinguish Google's genuine problems from people's inability to specify what they are looking for, the ambiguities of language and the fact that what you are looking for may not even be there.

Does Aldo Shoes (whatever they are) actually have a web presence? If not, then what were you looking for? (edit: found it, www.aldoshoes.com for the curious. Totally built from flash which probably helps account for it's invisibility to Google)

And you really have no place to complain about Google returning commercial sites (or hotels, or whatever) if that is in fact what the majority of their customers are looking for.

It's a search engine, not a mind reader.

aquatic · January 29, 2004 12:31PM

Yea that PLUS they are trying to kill www.booble.com !!!

ebby · January 29, 2004 12:48PM

booble

amorph · January 29, 2004 1:12PM

Google's also having trouble dealing with blogs now. Between that kind of pervasively linked content, and all-visual content like Flash, it can't be too easy for them to keep up.

Moving to GD.

mimac · January 29, 2004 1:46PM

Try DogPile ... it's pretty intuitive and gets results from ALL the major search engines.

hmurchison · January 29, 2004 2:28PM

Quote:

You really have to distinguish Google's genuine problems from people's inability to specify what they are looking for, the ambiguities of language and the fact that what you are looking for may not even be there.

I'm know Internet Search newbie SLF but when Google doesn't give me a hit for the company when yahoo Correctly provides results it makes me think the forthcoming IPO from Google is not as safe a bet as what people think. I wouldn't have started this topic based on the results of one search. I find it increasingly difficult to find the right things with Google and that is the issue at hand. It's morphing into some nightmare commercial link. I agree with Torifile ..when something better comes along I'll jump but I was hoping that Google would make sure that didn't happen. Sadly that looks to be exactly what is happening.

Quote:

Google's also having trouble dealing with blogs now.

Googles having problems with a lot of things lately. For christ sake if I search for a product then the default return should START with the manufacturer and them move on from there. Hoping for the best but I'm having my doubts about that IPO.

ps5533 · January 29, 2004 3:01PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hmurchison

More and more Google is not returning the results I need. All too often now I get a bunch of commercial sites when I want the actually manufacturer

My search for "Aldo Shoes"

Returns directories and commercial sites. This is not an isolated incident. Googles usefullness is starting to wane. They're losing focus and what I once perceived as an unbreachable position by Google is now precarious. I do think Microsoft could develop something to beat Google now. I'm very disappointed in Google right now. What say ye?

its not going commercial they just have the sites that apply the most or match the most

mattjohndrow · January 29, 2004 4:17PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MiMac

Try DogPile ... it's pretty intuitive and gets results from ALL the major search engines.

when i can't get what i need from google, i use either dogpile or webcrawler

aquatic · January 29, 2004 4:31PM

Yup MetaCrawler used to be my mine search, then DogPile. I finally realized Google was so accurate there wasn't a need for the mass amount of power of DogPile. Google is still the best. But when it fails I turn to DogPile.

However one engine I miss is NorthernLight. I liked their Search Folders. Why did NorthernLight die out? It doesn't search the internet anymore so is kind of pointless. Google should buy their Search Folders. I've long wondered why Google can't sort results like a Finder window can sort data, by date created, modified, size, kind (NortherLight Search folders), etc etc. I wrote them. I wonder why they haven't added this feature yet. I find I'd like to sort by date a lot when researching for papers.

ichiban_jay · January 29, 2004 4:31PM

I always have used Yahoo.com's search engine. I dunno why. but the results there are always good, and I've used it for 8 years now so it's hard to break a habit

lisa1029 · October 29, 2013 4:18AM