h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just did a search that included the word 'rationale', and most of the hits are for the word 'rational'

Of the first hundred hits, there are only 27 instances of the word 'rationale'.


Is google now assuming that most people can't spell or don't know the word they're looking for?

Why can't they give the option - 'exact search' or 'the search where we tell you what (we think) you're really looking for'?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=google+advanced+search

>> Is google now assuming that most people can't spell or don't know the word they're looking for? <<

Good point. Lately I've been feeling terribly patronised by their assumptions.
Instead of showing results for what I type they give me a load of other crap.
User friendliness is starting to get creepy.

I'm sure they mean well, in a cold impersonal mechanistic soulless corporate way,
but if a real actual person and not a machine did that to me more than once or twice
I'd feel the need to check them for being so damned 'previous'.

That said, I'm sure Tal's linked advice will prove helpful.


~jwf~

Search "rationale" -"rational"

That should work. I think that's right. See what happens if you fill in the "Advanced Search" by putting the word "rational" in the "excluding word..." box.



PS - I've just tried it. The search bar should look like this:

rationale -rational

Wordnet is kinda

http://goo.gl/pOdU

And I made a browser search plugin for it.

Hootooers may download it here:

http://goo.gl/zodY

When I do a search on google, one of the first things it says before the search result list, is 'showing results for "our correction of your speling", l click here to search instead for "your own batly tiped and mismelt search string"

(of course the bits between the "'s is the corrected and origional search you enter in the edit field ...

Qwite youseful for me is google being able to spel, one lez thing I kneed to wory about geting rite.

I don't mind them offering a 'we'll spell it for you' option, 2legs. I just object to not having the choice of an exact search. Given that they offer a number of different ways to search, how hard would it be to build that in?

Taliesin and TC, I was using Advanced Search. I just don't think I should have to tell google to omit a word that they've put in that I didn't want ask for in the first place. I mean, obviously I do do that all the time, because adv search helps limit the number of hits. But google are increasing the number of useless hits right from the start.

Personally, I find the most annoying thing about google is being inundated with links trying to sell me something...

And yes, the spelling thing gets annoying at times.

its realy stupid

Hmm!I'm wondering about the days when there were NO search engines...What it must have been like...

We had the Whole Earth Catalog, man!

And now online

http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php

(some of it at least, although the website is a bizarrely user unfriendly It used to be easier than that)

>>...some of it at least...<< All the bomb and drug making bits have been edited out I think. Just like a current thread is being severely moderated for mentioning bombs. It was started by Christopher who's writing a novel and asked for advice about the audible range of explosions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F19585?thread=7568171&skip=0&show=20 They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But anyone seeking information or expertise in certain areas is probably a terrorist. ~jwf~

Google gives me the option to search for exactly what I type in and also an option for a corrected search. Google obviously hates you*



*at first I typed which should be a smiley reserved for 2leg's journals only! And it's the second time I've typed it today!

What's a corrected search?

To be fair ~jwf~, the post has been referred, not removed

Fair? FAIR??!
When have I ever been fair?
This is cyberspace. No sticks, no stones.
Just nukes from orbit.


~jwf~

<>

My own term for when google corrects your spelling.

An(other), perhaps superior, google alternative: http://ixquick.com/eng/

It offers much better privacy, and even an anonymization proxy

There's a browser search-engine add-on, too!

There used to be such a variety of search engines, yahoo, altavista, metacrawler etc etc. Does no one use them any more?

What are the transparent stars for beside each hit? If you click on them they turn yellow.