Help! Google Search is becoming too smart to be useful (for exact matches) Thread poster: Jean Dimitriadis
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For translators who, like me, use Google Search for web as corpus searches (both in source and target language), I have noticed a recent, very annoying, development.
Have you tried searching for stuff between "quotes"? This should signify to Google that we are looking for "exact matches". I use it all the time.
Well, in the relentless "search" (sic) to catch synonyms, typos and in general second-guess the user's intention (and ultimately be useful, heavily relying on AI... See more For translators who, like me, use Google Search for web as corpus searches (both in source and target language), I have noticed a recent, very annoying, development.
Have you tried searching for stuff between "quotes"? This should signify to Google that we are looking for "exact matches". I use it all the time.
Well, in the relentless "search" (sic) to catch synonyms, typos and in general second-guess the user's intention (and ultimately be useful, heavily relying on AI and deep neural networks to do so), the search is becoming increasingly broken when you actually want to find something specific.
Like "how many occurences of this phraseology are there in the indexed corpus"?
After performing such an exact match search, I often have a hard time to find "any" matches whose snippet includes the exact combination of words I've enclosed between quotes.
I am often left resorting to another tool like Bing, but even then, since its index is less rich, my searches are often inconclusive.
Short of being too cool for school, Google Search is becoming too smart… for its own good (not mine).
> Rant mode off
UPDATE: See post number 8 for a way to enforce verbatim search.
[Edited at 2021-11-19 01:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Beijer 
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:35
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| hmm, can't say that I have noticed any change | Nov 18, 2021 |
Which Google are you using?
• https://www.google.com/...
• https://www.google.co.uk/...
etc.
On a related note, this is why I have never even tried Bing: I have never been able to make Bing do "exact quoted searches" like Google.
Michael
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I have mostly noticed this in French, where there is less indexed content (but still…).
It typically occurs when there might not be enough exact results, and Google starts being more "creative". But sometimes I am surprised. I'd expected at least some decent exact matches. And there is not one highlighted match. I have even used a "quoted term" along with a term out or quotes, and the snippets only show the term out of quotes. How useful is that… Plus, the times where there are ... See more I have mostly noticed this in French, where there is less indexed content (but still…).
It typically occurs when there might not be enough exact results, and Google starts being more "creative". But sometimes I am surprised. I'd expected at least some decent exact matches. And there is not one highlighted match. I have even used a "quoted term" along with a term out or quotes, and the snippets only show the term out of quotes. How useful is that… Plus, the times where there are "thousands results", only running three pages deep…
Really, there must have been a recent update. The change has been very noticeable here…
[Edited at 2021-11-18 16:04 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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I have noticed the same both in English and in French (the languages I use most).
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Thanks for confirming this, Teresa!
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As an imperfect alternative (it uses Bing), WebCorp Live might be of interest to some. It lets you access the Web as a corpus - a large collection of texts from which examples of real language use can be extracted.
https://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/
[Edited at 2021-11-18 18:02 GMT]
| | | | ATIL KAYHAN
Türkiye
Local time: 17:35
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
+ ...
| Google Advanced Search | Nov 18, 2021 |
I highly recommend that you use Google Advanced Search rather than Google Basic Search. I have been using Advanced Search for perhaps a decade if not longer. I will never go back to basic search. Advanced Search is a lot more flexible, powerful, efficient and focused. This does not specifically address your issue described above but it offers a... See more I highly recommend that you use Google Advanced Search rather than Google Basic Search. I have been using Advanced Search for perhaps a decade if not longer. I will never go back to basic search. Advanced Search is a lot more flexible, powerful, efficient and focused. This does not specifically address your issue described above but it offers a new insight regarding web search.
https://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en ▲ Collapse
| | | | AnnaSCHTR
United States
Local time: 09:35
English to Czech
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| Even with the Advanced seach | Nov 18, 2021 |
This occurs more frequently with the Advanced Search as well. Google also like to translate words to other languages, or even transliterate when using non-Latin alphabets. Very irritating. (And don't get me started on the number of ads and sponsored content.)
| | | | James McVay
United States
Local time: 10:35
Russian to English
+ ...
| Verbatim search | Nov 19, 2021 |
The ability to do a search for an exact string of characters is vitally important for a translator. Like you, I’ve noticed Google getting somewhat “creative” with its search results. But here’s an approach that usually works for me.
Type your search term inside double quotes and press Enter. On the results page, you will see a list of options under the search box. Click Tools>All results >Verbatim and press Enter.
You do need the double quotes. Google will st... See more The ability to do a search for an exact string of characters is vitally important for a translator. Like you, I’ve noticed Google getting somewhat “creative” with its search results. But here’s an approach that usually works for me.
Type your search term inside double quotes and press Enter. On the results page, you will see a list of options under the search box. Click Tools>All results >Verbatim and press Enter.
You do need the double quotes. Google will still get creative without them. This technique works well enough that, if Google finds no exact match, you will get no results. Not even creative ones.
Do this test:
- Go to Google.com
-Type “i luv argu”
- Press Enter to see a bunch of creative results
- Click Tools > All results > Verbatim
- Press Enter
You should get:
Did you mean: “I luv argue”
No results containing all your search terms were found.
Your search - “ I luv argu” - did not match any documents. Reset search tools [etc.]
You won’t see that list of options on the super clean Google home page. You need to run a search first.
[Edited at 2021-11-19 14:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Hello James,
Thank you so much for sharing this workaround. This is gold!
Applying the verbatim search option does enforce the quotes, so we can get the old functionality back that way.
Now, I have to do some web search, and Google, you better mark my words…
EDIT: With this method, the number of results is not shown, and the verbatim terms are not always displayed in the text snippets. Still better than sliced bread.
[Edited at 2021-11... See more Hello James,
Thank you so much for sharing this workaround. This is gold!
Applying the verbatim search option does enforce the quotes, so we can get the old functionality back that way.
Now, I have to do some web search, and Google, you better mark my words…
EDIT: With this method, the number of results is not shown, and the verbatim terms are not always displayed in the text snippets. Still better than sliced bread.
[Edited at 2021-11-19 06:47 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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James McVay wrote:
Do this test:
- Go to Google.com
-Type “i luv argu”
- Press Enter to see a bunch of creative results
At this point, I get:
No results found for "i luv argu".
Results for i luv argu (without quotes):
And then the creative results. I don't mind the creative results, as I have already been told no results were found for the exact string.
| | | | esperantisto
Local time: 17:35
Member (2006)
English to Russian
+ ...
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