Search Results with no Corrections - Google Introduces Verbatim Search

[tedster]

Many people have been frustrated in recent times with Google's search corrections and personalizations. Recently some of the complaints have been quite loud!

In their blog, "Inside Search", Google writes:

...we've received a lot of requests for a more deliberate way to tell Google to search using your exact terms. We've been listening, and starting today you'll be able to do just that through verbatim search.

With the verbatim tool on, we’ll use the literal words you entered without making normal improvements such as

making automatic spelling corrections

personalizing your search by using information such as sites you've visited before

including synonyms of your search terms (matching "car" when you search [automotive])

finding results that match similar terms to those in your query (finding results related to "floral delivery" when you search [flower shops])

searching for words with the same stem like "running" when you've typed [run]

making some of your terms optional

[insidesearch.blogspot.com...]

You can access the new "verbatim search" on the left hand menu, under "More search tools." And all I can say is let's use it... or we'll lose it!

[rlange]

Pardon my language, but... #*$! yes.

What I'd really like to see is the option to turn those "improvements" off on an individual basis. I think synonyms and stems could be useful, but Google's a lot more prone to screwing up the similar phrases part (their own example is perfect: someone searching for [floral shops] isn't necessarily looking for delivery).

Aside: I like how a verbatim search for [run] has more results than a standard search for the same word.

--
Ryan

[kidder]

This is good news Tedster, whats the default setting?

[johnmoose]

Same here! Tried verbatim search and I ain't never going back to the normal results.

[Andem]

>> use it... or we'll lose it

Oh I completely agree. This is a very happy day for me. G Search has become useless to me for many searches and hopefully this will help me find some of the stuff I need.

Google is still the most comprehensive search engine, but when their personalisation and horrible guesses on what I might want are trumping what I'm actually looking for, it's game over. Hopefully this is a step backwards in what Google has become.

[johnhh]

um , nice , but will the average user actually notice it as it's hidden away. Or is it just a sop to webmasters complaints - i.e results without some filters applied.

[ken_b]

OK, how do we tell this thing we want "kw1 kw2" +"kw3"

What substitutes for the +now?

[johnhh]

hi ken_b

try quote marks "kw3" no +

[LostOne]

I don't see local stuff either. Pictures and videos are gone. Nope, there's a few.

[Leosghost]

Pardon my language, but... #*$! yes.

Oh p%*¤#@& ! enfin !

As posted above..now the trick is to get everyone else to use it..

:(( not available on Google.fr

[edited by: Leosghost at 11:53 pm (utc) on Nov 18, 2011]

[Bewenched]

Maybe in their results instead of
"Were you searching for XYZ"
it should say
"Did you want to search just XYZ" which would switch between results for the average end users.

that would be a blessing.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

What left hand menu?

[Leosghost]

@BDW ..it is near the bottom of the left side after you have already made a search ..you then get a menu on left side of first page of SERPS..then you click "more"

and there it is "verbatim", hidden away two levels in..and apparently on dot com only..

Btw..how many average reading level ( joe and jane six pack or their equivalents in any country ) searchers/ surfers/readers are going to know what "verbatim" even means?

[dickbaker]

This is interesting. My site was one of those hit extremely hard by Panda on 2/24. If I turn on Verbatim, I have many of my first page or even #1 positions back.

[jinnguyen]

Steve Jobs suggested Google to cut bloat to avoid becoming Microsoft?

Bloat Search

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Verbatim search rocks, I'll never use the other again.

[McMohan]

Verbatim search just the normal search within quotes? Can't understand what this euphoria is about.

[tangor]

What do we call this? Google Lite? :)

"Classic" has already been used by a cola company.

[Reno]

That option is buried so deep in the search process I'll be surprised if one person in one thousand regular websurfers takes the time to use it. I'd like to see the "Verbatim" button between "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" ~ until it has that kind of prominence & ease of usage, it will be a non-factor for generating traffic.

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

[koan]

New feature! Google without all the new features! After catering for so many years to newbies, it's great to see them throw a bone to experienced users, it was getting frustrating at times and even forced me to try Bing a few times lately.

[loner]

How retro- I'm sticking with Bing.

[norton j radstock]

At last -if only they would make it the default, then we would really start having search worth using.

[lucy24]

I've defaulted to Advanced Search for years, and they've gone and changed that interface too. Not substantively; they've just made it physically harder to read.

Besides, ahem, they don't mean "verbatim". They mean "literal". But given a choice between your average user not knowing what "verbatim" means, and that same user thinking they know* (incorrectly) what "literal" means ...

:: further clicking ::

This Help Center isn't currently available in your language. However, you can select another language from the "Change Language" drop-down menu at the bottom of the page or download Google Toolbar, which can instantly translate websites in 42 languages.

Holy smokes, they're reading my system language. And I'm not even in Safari (the only one of my browsers that includes this detail in the UA).

Can anyone figure out what that mysterious javascript-link-squiggle is at the bottom of the Help page? I'm afraid to click it :(

javascript:toggleLayer('share-links');track('Page%20Actions',%20'Share');

Share with whom? Track where?


* It ain't the things you don't know that hurts you, et cetera.

[tigger]

I presume this is .com / US only? as I can't find this on .co.uk

[lucy24]

fwiw: If you go to .co.uk from the US, you get the "verbatim" option way at the bottom of the "more tools" list as described somewhere further up the thread. I don't think anyone has yet figured out how to get Verbatim Search without that leading search.

Come to think of it, can you even go straight to Advanced Search? I've had it bookmarked so long, I never even thought about it.

Quick edit: Yes, you can. It's on the gear thingie next to "sign in". (Advanced. Not Verbatim.) But I can't remember what you did before they added the black bar.

And further edit to throw a violent tantrum upon discovering that you can g### in Klingon, Pirate and Elmer Fudd [google.com], but not in my actual system language.

[tigger]

fwiw: If you go to .co.uk from the US, you get the "verbatim" option way at the bottom of the "more tools" list as described somewhere further up the thread. I don't think anyone has yet figured out how to get Verbatim Search without that leading search.

that maybe the case from the US but not here - which does seem daft! - OK daft question, this Verbatim search is called that and not some silly name?

I'm not seeing it and I've looked on the more & expanded more links

[lucy24]

#1 Do a search. Any search. You cannot get to Verbatim Search without first searching without it.

#2 To the left of your results you'll get a column of extra stuff with headers in red:
Everything;
Search near...;
The web.
Under that last item are two things: "Pages from the UK" (which is probably a brazen lie but I won't check now) and finally "More search tools".

#3 Click on "More search tools" and a bunch more stuff shows up in the same column. The very very last thing, before "Fewer search tools", is "Verbatim":

Sites with images
Related searches
Dictionary
Reading level
Translated foreign pages
Verbatim

Oh, and if your search happens to be for "verbatim" (I picked the word at random) you will not be presented with a page extolling g###'s new function.

[tigger]

thanks lucy24

but ..............how buried! and they really think anyone will ever find that ..JOKE

[caribguy]

Get verbatim results for any query:

http://www.google.com/search?q=keyword1+keyword2&tbs=li:1 [google.com]

[HuskyPup]

I presume this is .com / US only? as I can't find this on .co.uk

It's down there at the bottom LHS however if you search between .com and co.uk, either direction, it switches it off and you have to select verbatim again.