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Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me?

Posted by timothy on from the that's-what-the-quotes-are-for dept.

An anonymous reader writes: As a programmer especially, I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with Google searches. They try very hard to present me with what they think I'm searching for instead of what I'm actually searching for. This issue mostly shows up when searching error messages, obscure type and function names and stuff like that. What I think though, is that I only notice the issue when searching for stuff I know a lot about, namely programming, but my queries get distorted when I'm searching for just about anything, I just don't know enough about the subject to notice. Are there any alternative search engines left that don't think they know better than me what I'm looking for and just search for my phrase, like in the 2000s? Searching for exact strings is an option with Google, but what search engines are the most hands-off to start with?

5 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Amen brother! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Going to be unpopular, but I've noticed I get better results when I'm logged in. When I search for programming terms that are not obviously unique to programming (example: "Spring" from Spring Framework) I get relevant results as Google knows I'm usually searching for programming related material, if I need to a "clean" search I can go to incognito for a second to get that.

  2. Re:Did you mean... by thechemic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did you mean... "are there any humans left that know how to RTFM?" Google provides instructions on advanced use cases such as these.

    Advanced Search Form:
    http://www.google.com/advanced_search

    Advanced operators to filter and fine tune results:
    https://sites.google.com/site/gwebsearcheducation/advanced-operators

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
  3. Re:Amen brother! by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check this box if you can spell and really mean what you type.

    There is, but unfortunately you can't set it up as a default, and you have to select it after you've done your search.

    Go to Search Tools, you'll see a drop down currently marked "All Results", change it to "Verbatim", and you'll get a classic Google search (for the most part.)

    I'm finding about 90% of my Google searches end up with my selecting that option. Google, seriously, when are you going to fix this?

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Re:Amen brother! by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check this box if you can spell and really mean what you type.

    There is, but unfortunately you can't set it up as a default, and you have to select it after you've done your search.

    Go to Search Tools, you'll see a drop down currently marked "All Results", change it to "Verbatim", and you'll get a classic Google search (for the most part.)

    I'm finding about 90% of my Google searches end up with my selecting that option. Google, seriously, when are you going to fix this?

    If you put &tbs=li:1 at the end of your search URL, you'll get verbatim results.

  5. http://symbolhound.com/ by the_pouar · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://symbolhound.com/