Google search results are plain horrible of late, getting worse?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

A picture is worth a thousand words, yet searching for a simple word like apples ranks Google at 2/10 fail. The picture proof... - [a.yfrog.com...]

Google's algo is trying to guess what I want to look at just a tad too hard I'd say. Apples is pretty self explanatory, to a human.

[tedster]

That's an example of the Google "intention engine" misfiring. It's ignoring the "s" for 8/10 results, and that's not very smart at all.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

It's also an example of how the best result is stuffed at the very bottom of the fold with Google. Bing and Yahoo get 7/10 and 9/10 respectively with MANY solid results above the fold.

[arronsky]

doesn't it drive you crazy that the adsense gutter on the right is dead-on with your search, and yet the left pane is full of intention-garbage?

It makes you wonder... if the left pane is really what the user wants, then why in the world would the right pane (adsense), which makes them all their money and is therefore mission-critical to really capture the user's intent-- have such different results? HMMM Google?

[Azimuth]

Welcome to the world of 'real-time trend' results.

[Robert Charlton]

I agree that the [apples] results are dreadful.

...Google "intention engine" misfiring

In general, what I'm seeing is that, instead of being skewed by a keyword in the query like, say, a city name, which might have returned irrelevant sites with cityname authority (eg, civic organizations or the chamber of commerce)... Google results are now also being skewed by a keyword in the query like, say, the word "history", which will perhaps distort intention and give me timeline and book results... even though what I really wanted was the word "history".

I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I think for certain types of queries, Google is in constant beta mode here, using searcher satisfaction, eg, as a calibrator of intention... and Google is also in constant beta mode about how it's measuring searcher satisfaction.

The more user data Google collects, the better the results are likely to get over time. It's very tricky to evaluate intent on competitive searches for words with multiple meanings... and no intent-voting mechanism is ever going to satisfy everybody.

doesn't it drive you crazy that the adsense gutter on the right is dead-on with your search, and yet the left pane is full of intention-garbage?

I'm assuming you really mean AdWords here... and it's always been the case that you could look at the ads to see commercially desirable alternative results. When there are multiple meanings for a word, the ads are generally targeting the variant(s) of the query that don't do well algorithmically.

Search for [windows], eg, and look at who's buying the ads. It's not software companies. I think the serps for many queries like this have arguably gotten better over time. If you had been a local window company years ago, you didn't have a chance in hell of getting on the first page without a lot of adjectives.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 8:07 am (utc) on Aug 10, 2010]

[cien]

This is something that might fill their coffers short term but will backfire on them. The web is turning anti-Google. There is even a consumer site dedicated to watch their every move: [insidegoogle.com...]

I don't use Google anymore for search. I use Yahoo and Bing. They don't fail to deliver.

[Mark_A]

The web is turning anti-Google.

Google is now nothing like the fair minded upstart that bit by bit took the SE world by storm with good quality search engine results from a position of being the underdog. It is now a money driven massive monster so it is no wonder that people may be turning against it.

But how many people are turning, I still only see a fraction of bing and yahoo referrals in my logs. I bet the majority are lagging the trend as usual.

As my small contribution to the demise of google, I often post that I have googled something and then include the search url at bing. If only it may get people thinking.

[VaBeachKevin]

I just did the apples search and found only 3 results for apple computers and the other 7 about actual edible apples. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

[JoeSinkwitz]

I had no idea that people would intend to click on obviously dropped domains of a non-relevant focus that are slathered with auto-action doorway pages and malware installs; I've been watching this for over 6 months and they just haven't been improving.
[end sarcasm]

[londrum]

to be fair to google, theres probably thousands and thousands and thousands of links to all those apple computer pages using the plural word 'apples'.
eg 'apples new laptop', 'apples new ipod'

if theres loads of links using that actual word, how can they not associate 'apples' with it.

sounds like one of the drawbacks of using backlink text to weight pages.

[HuskyPup]

Is it time Google moved "Searches related to keyword" to the top rather than the bottom of the page?

I just did a search on the global Gogle.com for "apple" and 9/10 was Apple Computer related however when clicking on "Searches related to apple" and "apple fruit" it is spot on...funny thing though, no mention of Apple Records!

And, of course, the Google.co.uk results are different again with a UK ad agency in there...one thing's for sure, they certainly are not delivering the same results everywhere and an example like this just goes to demonstrate the difficulty of ranking for specific keywords.

[Reno]

Google is now nothing like the fair minded upstart that bit by bit took the SE world by storm with good quality search engine results from a position of being the underdog.

As many here know, when you have a company that employs highly paid employees, they have to do something to justify their salaries. They can't just sit around and say "everything is working fine so we won't do anything". A few weeks of that and their jobs are in jeopardy.

So in Google's case, the highly paid and much in demand engineering staff is going to keep messing with the motor, because if they don't then they'll be perceived as not earning the Big Buck$. Sometimes they'll get it close to right and sometimes they'll screw it up. Their primary concern is to be busy -- if they get it right, then they can high five, but if not, that's a darn shame but hey, at least they were doing something. In fact, if the motor does get a little out of tune, then they have to try to fix it, which keeps them even busier. So it's win-win for them, and for everyone else, it's hit & miss.

Really, a relatively small handful of people are effecting us all, and if you see them deliver a beautiful & elegant set of SERPs, don't celebrate -- it's just a matter of time before they'll try to re-tune it, and that knocking you'll hear will be the valves out of position..... yet again.

......................

[anand84]

I'd never used any search engine apart from Google in the past so many years. But now in the past few months, as I have tried others, I have come to believe that Yahoo Search consistently offers the most relevant results..Too bad they are making way for Bing soon.

[superpower]

I started going to Bing.

This last update totally screwed up Google's results. It's a mess.

[superpower]

Do a search for "apples" on Bing and compare results with Google.

[longen]

I think the Google UK serps are very relevant - 5 results for Apple fruit, and 5 related to Apple Inc. which millions would search for. A clear choice.

and in addition:-

Searches related to apples
types of apples
pictures of apples
apples health
information on apples
images of apples
apple recipes
apple nutrition
apple trees

[superpower]

If somebody searches for "apples" then they clearly didn't mean Apple Inc.

Maybe it would make sense to have Apple Inc. as a "suggestion"

This is the top half of my page for my "apples" search:

Results:

#
Apple
Apple designs and creates iPod and iTunes, Mac laptop and desktop computers, the OS X operating system, and the revolutionary iPhone and iPad.
Show stock quote for AAPL
iPhone - Store - iPad - Support
www.apple.com/ - Cached - Similar
#
Apple - iPhone 4 - Video calls, multitasking, HD video, and more
iPhone 4 is a GSM cell phone with a high-resolution display, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, a 5-megapixel camera, and more.
www.apple.com/iphone/ - Cached - Similar
Show more results from www.apple.com
#
Apple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family (Rosaceae) and is a perennial. It is one of the most widely ...
Botanical information - History - Cultural aspects - Apple cultivars
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple - Cached - Similar
#
Apple Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) (previously Apple Computer, Inc.) is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. - Cached - Similar
#
News for apples

# Dell Streak officially priced for US‎ - 1 day ago
I wonder if the Streak is why Apple has placed an order for smaller touch ... It's Apples right to market their devices in a manner they see fit and I am ...
CNET - 301 related articles »
#
12-core Mac Pro now available in Apple Store‎ - CNET (blog) - 73 related articles »
#
Your next kiwi fruit may be an apple‎ - The Australian - 411 related articles »

[Seb7]

@anand84

I like Yahoo search too. Very unappreciated engine, cant believe they sold out to bing.

Google has become more about money than about good service.

[walkman]

It's working as planned, they want you to click on the ads which are how the SERPS should be--relevant.

[WebWalla]

If the screenshot is from the original searcher, he/she is logged in. Perhaps they'd been searching previously for Apple-related products? That could be skewing the results.

When I do the search, I get far more results related to the fruit.

[goingincircles]

There is even a consumer site dedicated to watch their every move: [insidegoogle.com...]

That was almost an interesting site to read until I came across this [insidegoogle.com...] which is such a blueprint of the "me me me / IT'S A CONSPIRACY" rubbish that pollutes the internet I immediately left the site, probably never to return.

[optik]

Been using Bing for a few months after a disagreement with Google Adwords, I was getting thousands of junk click throughs from Chinese sites that had absolutely no relevance to my product.

Bing I find is just as good and I'm going to continue using it.

[petehall]

I like Yahoo search too. Very unappreciated engine, cant believe they sold out to bing.

Personally I think Yahoo! offers out-dated results which are a bit messy.

Bing is quite a nice search engine but won't deliver anywhere near the same traffic to a top a top performing site in Google.

I am involved with many sites which rank equally well on all three mentioned search engines and Google is always the largest referrer by a considerable volume.

[londrum]

when i do a search for apples, it is wierd that every single adwords ad is for apple the fruit, but the serps are topped by apple the company.

presumably they are far more advertisers selling apple computers and ipods and ipads and itunes and iphones than there are people selling the fruit.

how can they get it perfect for adwords, but not for the serps.

[jecasc]

Google thinks you are stupid.

Surely you must have mispelled, because nobody searches for apples, but everybody wants an Apple.

The same if you are a foreigner and want to search on english. Surely you must have mispelled a word in your language, because come on - nobody speks any foreign languages. What are the chances you really wanted to search for an english word when you have a french IP.
Ok you want to go to google.com for english words? You are really serious about this aren't you? But your IP is still french, no way you speak english, lets redirect you to google.fr again.

You typed in three words. No way you really want a document that contains all those three words. Let's simply omit one of them and do a little wordstemming on those other two. We are Google, we know better than you what you are looking for.

+ and "" are your friends these days.

[Web_speed]

This last update totally screwed up Google's results. It's a mess.

Amen to that. Messy and very greedy i might add.

[graeme_p]

Assuming you are searching for the fruit, Yahoo's results are easily the best.

Bing is completely dominated by Apple the company, while Google is somewhere in between.

I wonder if people who are seeing more of Apple Inc are getting personalised results?

Its getting amazing how the usually fairly sane and intelligent crowd at WW are getting so irrational with Google hate.

[johnnie]

how can they get it perfect for adwords, but not for the serps.

because that would lure people to adwords, that's why.

[mrguy]

When I search for Apples on Bing, only two listings are for Apple computer, all the others are about Apples.

On Google, 5 of the listings are about Apple computer, the others are about apples.

For me, Google failed to produce the most relevant results for that search, but it has been that way for me for a while which is why I have been using Bing as my default search engine for quite a while now. I rarely use Google for anything.

For my searches, Bing results are more relevant.