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What's Wacky with Google?
There are always going to be oddities with any big online service, but this one seems to be persisting. Join the discussion in trying to figure out a pattern. For maybe a week, Google has been returning zero results or "1-1 of about xxx,000" for common searches. One-word searches seem unaffected, but there are certain two-word combinations of common words like
candle truck
or
speaker bracelet.
Reversing the order can affect searches too:
motorcycle candles
vs.
candles motorcycle.
The strange thing is that usually the 1 or 2 results found are to commerce sites. Read the
Search Basics,
compare your notes to
GoogleWhack's,
have fun looking for patterns, but remember that Google always returns slightly different results for different IP numbers.
(Update: 13:56 GMT by J : When I first posted this story it said the problems have been occurring "for several weeks at least" -- but it seems to be more like one week.)
Candle Truck?
I am so glad someone else noticed this!!! I've been so pissed I haven't been able to get any speaker bracelets recently. God google... forcing me to use other search engines to get my fix.
SkyNet is becoming self-aware.
It's just a glitch in The Matrix, of course.
I am sure the next Google Zeitgeist will show numerous searches for candle truck or speaker bracelet in October 2003. And nobody at Google will have an explanation for this ;-)
For further reference, see George Carlin.
"As soon as I shove this hot poker..."
The coolest voice ever.
Porn: Roughly 5 000 000 hits on google
Google: Roughly 70 000 000 hits on google.
Goolge is bigger than pr0n? Hmm, something _must_ be wrong.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
should produce about 50% error rate or we are really in trouble ;-)
Not wanting to kill anybody, we wait until the last two guys wander up to the candle truck.
I prefer not to even click on that one, and just speculate.
The coolest voice ever.
It's broke. Just put a sign on it and someone call the super.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Um, yeah. Actually, I don't know what you're talking about. Entering the phrase "to be or not to be" -- with quotes, so as to indicate you want the phrase, not just the collection of words -- yielded the first two pages of results all having that phrase. Not all of them were for pages on Shakespeare, but then again, that phrase is now deeply buried in the common memespace. If you make the search phrase
you do indeed get results with the phrase and exclusively referring to Shakespeare. Oh, I get it. You don't like the idea you need to actually construct a reasonable search phrase. You're mad that Google isn't, I don't know, telepathic. Your best bet is the SFWIWNFWIS search engine -- search for what I want, not for what I say.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Mwahhahahah!
1. Register speakerbracelet.com
2. Be the top 1 of 2 search results on google.
3. ????
4. Profit!
Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.
I've read that there's a real time search monitor in the lobby of Google's HQ. The nastiest words are removed, but other than that you can se exactly what people are searching for.
They have to be pretty confused right now, when thousands of searches for speaker bracelets, motorcycle candles and candle trucks show up on the display!
Martin
.....in the Matrix? Have we found it?
Are you suggesting they are trying to count the candle trucks?
Maybe they are doing testing to ensure the service will be in the usual Microsoft standards in case they are bought.
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
Don't bother - I just searched for
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE searchFor='\exit'; DROP database;
I wonder when this slashdot discussion will show up in the search results.
I used to use motorcycle candles but later found that an electric headlight is much brighter and doesn't blow out when I move.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
I just did a google search for lamp scapula and got 666 results. Obviously there is something inherently evil in lamp scapula. All good Christians should expunge any phrase that combines those two words from their vocabulary immediately.
Man, no wonder... You need to turn Safe Search OFF when you look up nasty stuff like that.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
I too think it sucks that you can't open the window on the airplane.
Ironic, considering that it would suck if you could...
The pigeons are getting tired.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Returns 9140 hits. Hmmm.
Best Slashdot Co
The cat's out of the bag! Google's buying Adobe!
gm candle truck: Results 1 - 10 of about 12,100
fiat candle truck: Results 1 - 10 of about 5,200
audi candle truck: Results 1 - 10 of about 7,090
chrysler candle truck: Results 1 - 10 of about 18,400
ferrari candle truck: Results 1 - 10 of about 9,810
ford candle truck: Your search - ford candle truck - did not match any documents.
Looks like it's about time ford got on the candle truck bandwagon.
C'mon, if you're going to do that, you should at least do it in binary.
Yeah, I recently was looking for the NATO phonetic alphabet and Googled for "hotel lima golf" as the first three things that popped into my head.
:)
Unfortunately, what came back was a bunch of pages advertising hotels with golf courses in Lima, Peru. So that technique doesn't work all the time.