Got a tracking blocker on? Recently been in Seattle? Running a VPN? Didn't bother using natural language (which is the direction google has been moving for the last 5+ years) for the query? Could be dozens of reasons.

Many computer bugs aren't replicable anymore. They are caused by a confluence of events, now in the multi-threaded days. Very hard to reproduce. But obviously they still matter.

Google isn't good at it. Google is all there is left. And Google has gotten worse.

Some stuff is actually quite simple. Except Google doesn't let its search engine learn anything. Like basic geography, what cities are in what counties, etc.
When you say google contextualizes it for a third party, you aren't properly using the word "third party". Because when I search on google I'm not a "third-party". "Third-party" is another audience, like an advertiser. If you mean google tries to make it better for advertisers, then yea, I believe that. Except that helps me naught.

A simple search for going from Eunos, in Singapore, to the airport, brings up many results if you look up google maps transit. None of them actually have the most common and easiest way-just take the East-West line all the way, transferring at Tanah Merah.

Then we simply disagree.


I'm not convinced that you understand how the tech works and what the options are for representing information.

But you *are* the third party. Google is the primary party. The source is the second party. Google are presenting the information to you, the third party - the party that is asking google for some part or select piece of information.


Welcome to the world of automation. You're more than welcome to join any number of companies and show them how to code better. After all, it's apparently "simple".

It isn't quite so simple. The barriers of entry are too high now, with the vast amount of info these tech companies have collected. It is hard to join in, even if you have a better algorithm, because you don't have all the data. And they aren't sharing it.
Tech is all about walled gardens, and the big firms don't share their data (well, maybe except Facebook, if you pay them something). so they prevent newcomers from coming in.

Make up your mind.

Obviously no one of us could �do it better� overnight, but I (and I�m sure many others) do find it frustrating that Google�s results have gotten worse, not better. I frequently get highly ranked results that have none of the terms I searched for, even when I�ve searched in quotes or with the + operator. Boolean operators are no longer recognized at all. And as we�ve seen in this thread, you can�t reproduce any of these issues thanks to Google�s personalized results, so there�s no way to know if we�re encountering bugs or it�s working as designed.

I use DuckDuckGo to avoid ad tracking, but they make no secret that their results are from Google. There really isn�t a viable alternative now.

Ah, we need another Jan Koum!

Ah, another point. So google refuses to give the address for Dahon's Taipei Flagship store. Of course, not typing in Chinese doesn't help.

But because google indexes whatever I say, apparently, just in case someone else looks for this in the future and cannot find it:
Dahon Flagship store in Neihu, Taipei: No. 637, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu Dist., Taipei City 11492, TaiwanTel: +886 2 27975109, 27975139

found by watching their youtube video of the launch, where someone asked where their store is located, and dahon responded.

So, the information is out there, just don't look to us to find it
-google

Funny, though the first search result is a press release announcing the new store...and Dahon doesn't even include the address in their press release.

Admittedly, I spend a chunk of my on-line time on the other side of the tracks: i.e.: Topics which you would contend.
But an upside for everybody concerned with this is that I have unearthed a few good search engines which provide a resourceful alternative to Google�.
Interestingly, DuckDuckGo is not one of them. I did not find as many W-WW sites via there when I sought some results.
What I have found to be solid are

1. Start Page
   • Metager .de

Metager is a German-hosted search engine that informs us it does not remove any links it might find on the Internet which pertain to your search. Regardless of whether it may be a result which violates somebody's copyright, or merely that what you seek is seriously creeping out Google�. {Quit judging me! Censoring search results is unpalatable for whatever reason.}
Both of these are on my regular bookmark page. (Do not bite your lip. The links to the more prurient content are on subsequent bookmark pages. If the censorware on your internet connection is preventing you from landing on those more prurient websites, the regular bookmark page has numerous links to proxy servers and methods to bypass censoring.)

Idly Googling my maternal grandfather's last name and the Polish city where he lived yesterday, I was amazed to find a pdf of a 1926 newspaper with an ad for the medical practice he and my grandmother worked for. Their names appeared in the ad; Adobe Acrobat successfully OCRrd the not-very-clear text, and Google indexed the pdf index.

Idly Googling my maternal grandfather's last name and the Polish city where he lived yesterday, I was amazed to find a pdf of a 1926 newspaper with an ad for the medical practice he and my grandmother worked for. Their names appeared in the ad; Adobe Acrobat successfully OCRrd the not-very-clear text; and Google indexed the pdf index.