Ask HN: What do you want to see from a Search Engine?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4584157

by asecretfornow • 14 years ago

5 6 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

People always say that "Search Sucks" so:

what do you want to see from a search engine? What do you think Google is lacking? What will make you switch from Google?

tokenadult• 14 years ago

I don't say search sucks. I use Google every day. To answer your question, what I want from a search engine is finding the most reliable source of information on the topic I am searching for. I don't want spammy trash to display higher in search results than thoughtful writing based on careful research.

itswitch• 14 years ago

no personalization, no ads, better shortcuts (calc, etc), finds what i need, indexes more pages.

corporalagumbo• 14 years ago

I like what Amazon is doing with book reviews these days. They trawl all the reviews for common statements and present those statements above the reviews. "44 people said something similar." It's nice. I would like search engines to be smarter in terms of summarising lots of data sources like this.

roothacker• 14 years ago

I want my personal website's links on the first page for any query.

shanelja• 14 years ago

In all honesty, I don't think there is an issue with search, Google is a fantastic search engine, which almost every time I search provides me with the results I was looking for, regardless of if I want to find a picture of Spiderman looking angry, look up the php mail function or I forgot the link to one of the adwords campaigns I'm running.

Sure, they collect my personal information, but is that really such an issue? As an analytics certified person, I can say "so what?" It tells me where you searched from, what you searched for, etc, but the information isn't interlinked, it's presented in a random format, the only chance of anyone reliably tying that to you would be if you were they only person to ever search for that term.

I don't think that Google is really lacking anything, if anything it has too much. I go there to use the big, central search box, that's it, I'll quite happily switch the day I find a better search engine, by which I mean, one which provides me with more relevant results.

dgunn• 14 years ago

Those who say, "Search Sucks", are bloggers who need you to read something they wrote. You're not likely to get one to show up here to tell you what's up. It's because they're just using that headline for what it is - bait that will top HN and drive traffic. They will make a few good points and let the readers have it out in the comments.

The truth is that Google and lots of other search engines can search the web pretty well. I can't actually think of a good example where I couldn't find what I was looking for (and isn't that the point?). Maybe occasionally you'll fail to find something really specific, but I think it reasonable to assume that if Google can't find it, it probably isn't there. Or it just isn't good enough to be linked to from elsewhere. And sites like that probably aren't worth a solution.

Ask HN: What do you want to see from a Search Engine?

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