Is Google dumbing us down?

[dave87]

Nah thats just lazyness. Like I'll stick hexus in the address bar and it'll bring up the Hexus main page. But to do it, its searched google.

[Howard]

Try Plasma Grenade -Halo ?

Beat me to it

[MadduckUK]

people keep saying -Halo.... what what does it show when you do it?!

[Nickg]

google = victom of its own sucess and thirst for revenue streams.

what use really is a search engine when the first 4 pages of results are all dictated by paid for advertising around keywords? its hardly a natural search when the results will always be skewed by those who pay the most to rank highest.

wheras before it became the commercial specimen it is now, it returned the most useful results...

[pauldarkside]

people keep saying -Halo.... what what does it show when you do it?!

Um results sans Halo ... exactly what I'd expect. Why?

[MadduckUK]

Um results sans Halo ... exactly what I'd expect. Why?

i mean it sill doesnt find anything relevant to real life. still just science fiction plasma grenades.

meaning that there was never a chance that it could find anything about them even when halo results were included.

[Agent]

i mean it sill doesnt find anything relevant to real life. still just science fiction plasma grenades.

meaning that there was never a chance that it could find anything about them even when halo results were included.

Then use more operators

I just tried "plasma grenade -halo -game +real +military" and got Slashdot | DARPA Developing Defensive Plasma Shield which is fairly close.
However, I suspect it wasn't called a plasma grenade, as there just isn't any real results being returned. It probably goes under another name which we need to know.

[pauldarkside]

It's more a problem with the choice of keywords, "plasma grenade" is prevalent as science-fiction terminology so the results are largely correct, and the inability to categorise those results by context or theme.

[Dorza]

Google: Scientology is a Dangerous Cult. If you don't want to read it then put dangerous cult into google.

[MadduckUK]

It's more a problem with the choice of keywords, "plasma grenade" is prevalent as science-fiction terminology so the results are largely correct, and the inability to categorise those results by context or theme.

well "laser cannon" is also a sci-fi fave. and yet the results are packed with real life articles

[pauldarkside]

All that suggests it that there are more real life articles for "laser cannon" than "plasma grenade" - it makes sense too. Just choose more well defined keywords and use the search options available.

[MadduckUK]

but there's more real life articles for laser cannon because there are NO real life plasma grenades. and no-one appears to even toyed with the idea of actually making one. so it shouldn't be showing any relevant results

[iranu]

Then use more operators

I just tried "plasma grenade -halo -game +real +military" and got

That was my first thought. I find myself using lots of operators on google to sort the wheat from the chaff. I do find it annoying when trying to find something specific or scientific like a paper and have to troll through the dross.

I also now use Firefox search bar plug-ins alot rather than just google.

[chicken]

That was my first thought. I find myself using lots of operators on google to sort the wheat from the chaff. I do find it annoying when trying to find something specific or scientific like a paper and have to troll through the dross.

I also now use Firefox search bar plug-ins alot rather than just google.

I've never actually used it but you might find this useful for papers: Google Scholar

if you put "robots.txt" after the main google address you'll get a list of all of the variations including some interesting beta stuff, I found Google video in there quite a while before it's launch.

[Lucio]

I think that the issue isn't that Google is "dumbing down" the internet, it's that the internet is simply becoming a product of the lowest common denominator.

Think about it, originally the Internet was used by scientists, then it became accessable to those who really really liked computers in an unhealthy fashion and now, the entire teenage populace would keel over dead if they couldn't check Facebook every 3 minutes in case they'd been "poked".

The more accessable the internet has became, the worse the standard has reached and without any real form of control, things will only get worse and worse.

[Zak33]

Try "plasma grenade -halo" in the box and you'll loose the halo stuff.

awesome...didn't know that.