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I've used other search engines but often find them clunky or even worse than google, so I always seem to go back.
But I see this issue over and over again. I do a search, say for "my elderly cat is losing weight," and on the first page of search results google includes a bunch of questions & answers presumably related to that search.
My issue is that often the answers to the questions MAKE NO SENSE -- they answer a DIFFERENT question, often the OPPOSITE question compared to what was actually asked.
For example, in the above search for "my elderly cat is losing weight," I got this q-and-a response (below is a screen shot from my phone):
Yes, the question asked about an older kitty who is LOSING WEIGHT (which is generally NOT a good thing), and the answer is about how to help your cat lose weight! I do understand that a computer is putting the two together, since no human (or at least no human with pets!) would answer the question "What to feed an older cat that is losing weight" with suggestions on helping said cat lose MORE weight.
/end rant
So what search engines do YOU use that you like better than google?
Bear in mind that Google sells placement to highest bidders, even off on a wild tangent, so you will always struggle to get clearly objective responses.
Bear in mind that Google sells placement to highest bidders, even off on a wild tangent, so you will always struggle to get clearly objective responses.
It's picking up on key words. Your question could be interpreted as "what to feed an older cat to lose weight".
Try rephrasing questions and see if that doesn't help.
For example I keyed in 'My cat has unexpected weight loss' and the first answer was "Causes of Cat Weight Loss."
Other similar questions were
Why is my cat losing weight even though she is eating?
When should I be concerned about my cat losing weight?
It's picking up on key words. Your question could be interpreted as "what to feed an older cat to lose weight".
Try rephrasing questions and see if that doesn't help.
For example I keyed in 'My cat has unexpected weight loss' and the first answer was "Causes of Cat Weight Loss."
Other similar questions were
Why is my cat losing weight even though she is eating?
When should I be concerned about my cat losing weight?
Does cancer cause a cat to lose weight?
What can cause weight loss in older cats?
Good luck
Thanks, those are good search questions.
But my point wasn't so much that I was getting certain results ... my point was that a specific KIND of result, the question-and-answer result, often has questions and answers that DON'T MATCH (that's what the picture in the OP shows). Clearly it's because of key words (and computers figuring out an answer instead of humans), but it seems like close to half of the "answers" in the question-and-answer results do not answer the question at all, and sometimes answer the OPPOSITE question.
Clearly it's because of key words (and computers figuring out an answer instead of humans), but it seems like close to half of the "answers" in the question-and-answer results do not answer the question at all, and sometimes answer the OPPOSITE question.
This has nothing to do with ads. It's a newer thing Google is trying out.
And as DubbleT says tactfully: Your search terms aren't great, bluntly, your search terms suck. You are getting exactly what you should.
Like you said "it's not a person it's a computer".
GIGO as we say (Garbage in, Garbage Out)
When you use the right terms those answer things are actually quite handy.
This isn't exactly your fault, for the longest time all the major search engines started encouraging everyone to use actual complete sentences. I've never like this and always thought it was dumb.
They no longer encourage operators like " " and & or NOT.
"my elderly cat is losing weight"
I mean, even a person would have no idea what you want here and would certainly not think you're looking for what to feed.
"Causes cat losing weight"
"Worried cat losing weight"
Why is my cat losing weight but still eating?
Why is my cat suddenly so skinny?
When should I be concerned about my cat losing weight?
Is it normal for cats to lose weight as they age?
This has nothing to do with ads. It's a newer thing Google is trying out.
And as DubbleT says tactfully: Your search terms aren't great, bluntly, your search terms suck. You are getting exactly what you should.
Like you said "it's not a person it's a computer".
GIGO as we say (Garbage in, Garbage Out)
When you use the right terms those answer things are actually quite handy.
This isn't exactly your fault, for the longest time all the major search engines started encouraging everyone to use actual complete sentences. I've never like this and always thought it was dumb.
They no longer encourage operators like " " and & or NOT.
"my elderly cat is losing weight"
I mean, even a person would have no idea what you want here and would certainly not think you're looking for what to feed.
"Causes cat losing weight"
"Worried cat losing weight"
Why is my cat losing weight but still eating?
Why is my cat suddenly so skinny?
When should I be concerned about my cat losing weight?
Is it normal for cats to lose weight as they age?
Do you know why it's losing weight?
Well, my "regular," non-question-and-answer results are typically OK despite my search terms sucking, as you put it. (And incidentally, any cat owner would ABSOLUTELY understand that if I said, "My elderly cat is losing weight," that I knew that was a bad thing and was asking for their experiences with elderly kitties losing weight.)
But in any case, I wasn't asking about the REGULAR results I get in google searches. As I wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
...But my point wasn't so much that I was getting certain results ... my point was that a specific KIND of result, the question-and-answer result, often has questions and answers that DON'T MATCH (that's what the picture in the OP shows). Clearly it's because of key words (and computers figuring out an answer instead of humans), but it seems like close to half of the "answers" in the question-and-answer results do not answer the question at all, and sometimes answer the OPPOSITE question.
So again, I wasn't complaining about the non-question-and-answer results that I get. I was asking specifically about why question/answer pairs that come up as results in google searches are so bad -- i.e., the answer given often DOES NOT answer the question in the pair.
I just saw it again today. I can't remember the results, but here's a hypothetical example of a question-and-answer pair shown as a result on google (so this is NOT the google question -- it's a question-and-answer pair that comes up as a google RESULT):
QUESTION: Why is the sky blue?
ANSWER: There are many reasons that the sky may be red. Blah blah blah.
^^^ THAT is the kind of thing that has me frustrated with google! I am going to try other search engines since google has gotten so bad. (I don't remember getting things like this so much in the past, but maybe I'm not remembering correctly.)
I've used other search engines but often find them clunky or even worse than google, so I always seem to go back.
But I see this issue over and over again. I do a search, say for "my elderly cat is losing weight," and on the first page of search results google includes a bunch of questions & answers presumably related to that search.
My issue is that often the answers to the questions MAKE NO SENSE -- they answer a DIFFERENT question, often the OPPOSITE question compared to what was actually asked.
For example, in the above search for "my elderly cat is losing weight," I got this q-and-a response (below is a screen shot from my phone):
Yes, the question asked about an older kitty who is LOSING WEIGHT (which is generally NOT a good thing), and the answer is about how to help your cat lose weight! I do understand that a computer is putting the two together, since no human (or at least no human with pets!) would answer the question "What to feed an older cat that is losing weight" with suggestions on helping said cat lose MORE weight.
/end rant
So what search engines do YOU use that you like better than google?
With search engines such as google's, very often less is more. Things may work better with opposites.
Try this search. No need for complete sentences. You will find plenty of what to feed a cat to GAIN weight.
Edit: I just tried your search on the sky is blue thing. I got this...
First link is this....
Quote:
The scattering caused by these tiny air molecules (known as Rayleigh scattering) increases as the wavelength of light decreases. Violet and blue light have the shortest wavelengths and red light has the longest. Therefore, blue light is scattered more than red light and the sky appears blue during the day
Bear in mind that Google sells placement to highest bidders, even off on a wild tangent, so you will always struggle to get clearly objective responses.
I clearly wrote that WHY IS THE SKY BLUE was A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE OF THE QUESTION IN A Q-AND-A GOOGLE RESULT. In other words, it was VERY MUCH LIKE the question portion of a question-and-answer result on google (in that the answer did not actually answer the question, and in fact answered a totally different question, which you could infer from the answer was, "Why is the sky RED?"), but it was A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE (but NOT an exaggerated one!).
And I've written 3-4 times now that I am NOT asking about the regular results from a google search (which are typically fine, or at least good enough for my purposes). All I am asking about is the QUESTION-AND-ANSWER results from a google search. I said that in the OP (even giving a photo of an example in which the question and answer did not "match"), then I said it again in post #5 ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
... But my point wasn't so much that I was getting certain results ... my point was that a specific KIND of result, the question-and-answer result, often has questions and answers that DON'T MATCH (that's what the picture in the OP shows). Clearly it's because of key words (and computers figuring out an answer instead of humans), but it seems like close to half of the "answers" in the question-and-answer results do not answer the question at all, and sometimes answer the OPPOSITE question.
Then, when Peregrine said it was the crappy search terms I was using (which was NOT what I was asking about!!), I said again in post #7 ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012
Well, my "regular," non-question-and-answer results are typically OK despite my search terms sucking, as you put it. ...
But in any case, I wasn't asking about the REGULAR results I get in google searches. [and I quoted myself here...]
So again, I wasn't complaining about the non-question-and-answer results that I get. I was asking specifically about why question/answer pairs that come up as results in google searches are so bad -- i.e., the answer given often DOES NOT answer the question in the pair.
I just saw it again today. I can't remember the results, but here's a hypothetical example of a question-and-answer pair shown as a result on google (so this is NOT the google question -- it's a question-and-answer pair that comes up as a google RESULT):
QUESTION: Why is the sky blue?
ANSWER: There are many reasons that the sky may be red. Blah blah blah.
^^^ THAT is the kind of thing that has me frustrated with google! I am going to try other search engines since google has gotten so bad. (I don't remember getting things like this so much in the past, but maybe I'm not remembering correctly.)
But you are answering as if I were asking about the "regular" search results. But I WASN'T, I was asking about the QUESTION-AND-ANSWER FORMAT results of a google search, and why THOSE are so bad.
Sorry, I don't mean to be bitchy as I really do always appreciate when people respond in my threads, but I've repeated myself now 3-4 times so it's a bit frustrating that people keep answering about "regular" google results when I am NOT asking about those.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000
[Their] sold placements are labeled as sponsored. The actual search results are not placed for pay.... and neither are the Q&A the OP is referring to.
First, THANK YOU for realizing what I was actually asking about.
But I am very curious as to HOW the q-and-a results could be SO bad, as in (as I have said several times now), not even answering the question part of the q-and-a, and in many cases, answering the OPPOSITE question.
I think I will have to do some google searches to get more examples of those really crappy q-and-a results, since so few seem to understand what I am talking about. (And that, honestly, surprises me, because on the first page of google results, my impression is that at least HALF of them are in that q-and-a format, which is typically VERY unhelpful because the actual question in the q-and-a is rarely answered! )
(And incidentally, just out of curiosity I did a search earlier today about why google results are so bad, and I got a bunch of hits saying they've gotten worse and worse over the past few years -- that there IS something different going on now. So another reason not to use google. )
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