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Google is apparently now better at searching programming-related questions
Mar 02, 2017
Andrej Mitrovic
Mar 03, 2017
Inquie
Mar 03, 2017
Andrej Mitrovic
Mar 04, 2017
XavierAP
Mar 04, 2017
Vladimir Panteleev
Mar 04, 2017
XavierAP
Mar 04, 2017
Vladimir Panteleev
Mar 04, 2017
Vladimir Panteleev
Mar 04, 2017
XavierAP
March 02, 2017
https://9to5google.com/2017/03/02/google-search-technical-queries-programming-languages/

I just used a private session and opened google, searched for "d libs" and the first three results were the DWiki and a Github project, https://wiki.dlang.org/Libraries_and_Frameworks, https://wiki.dlang.org/GUI_Libraries, and https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d.

Pretty decent!

I don't know what it looked like before, but I do know a lot of people complain about D being unsearchable. I also heard these complaints about Go as well, so D isn't alone in this.

If any of you have had issues with searching for D, could you give us an update on whether these rolled-out changes by Google have had any effect?
March 03, 2017
On Thursday, 2 March 2017 at 22:17:44 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> https://9to5google.com/2017/03/02/google-search-technical-queries-programming-languages/
>
> I just used a private session and opened google, searched for "d libs" and the first three results were the DWiki and a Github project, https://wiki.dlang.org/Libraries_and_Frameworks, https://wiki.dlang.org/GUI_Libraries, and https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d.
>
> Pretty decent!
>
> I don't know what it looked like before, but I do know a lot of people complain about D being unsearchable. I also heard these complaints about Go as well, so D isn't alone in this.
>
> If any of you have had issues with searching for D, could you give us an update on whether these rolled-out changes by Google have had any effect?

The proper term to use for google is dlang. When I use that I rarely have issues finding what I need.
March 03, 2017
On Thursday, 2 March 2017 at 22:17:44 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> https://9to5google.com/2017/03/02/google-search-technical-queries-programming-languages/
>
> I just used a private session and opened google, searched for "d libs" and the first three results were the DWiki and a Github project,

Not sure what you mean by private session, but they build up a model of your fields of interest which is why you are getting relevant results.

I get those same results when using my regular browser, but when using another browser I get "ad lib" etc, nothing about programming.


March 03, 2017
On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 07:51:06 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
> I get those same results when using my regular browser, but when using another browser I get "ad lib" etc, nothing about programming.

You may be right. :)

I mistakenly thought the lack of cookies would be enough to get clean results. So much for that!
March 03, 2017
On 03/03/2017 04:50 AM, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 07:51:06 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
>> I get those same results when using my regular browser, but when using
>> another browser I get "ad lib" etc, nothing about programming.
>
> You may be right. :)
>
> I mistakenly thought the lack of cookies would be enough to get clean
> results. So much for that!

startpage.com is another way to get clean (or at least clean-ish) results. Although, it's conceivable (probable?) it's really giving out results based on a "user" that's really an aggregate of startpage.com's users.
March 04, 2017
On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 18:28:50 UTC, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote:
> startpage.com is another way to get clean (or at least clean-ish) results. Although, it's conceivable (probable?) it's really giving out results based on a "user" that's really an aggregate of startpage.com's users.

I'm getting completly different results from startpage.com too... But I assume Google also have geographical bias... Too much AI...

March 04, 2017
On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 09:50:58 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 07:51:06 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
>> I get those same results when using my regular browser, but when using another browser I get "ad lib" etc, nothing about programming.
>
> You may be right. :)
>
> I mistakenly thought the lack of cookies would be enough to get clean results. So much for that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

If you're looking for a search engine that doesn't "track" or "bubble" you (and it's quite good too), try duckduckgo.com

https://duckduckgo.com/privacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo

If you want to get neutral results from Google in particular (as far as possible), duckduckgo has "bang" searches, for example searching for "!g dlang" redirects to a Google search of "dlang" in https and as anonymous as Google allows.

https://duckduckgo.com/bang
March 04, 2017
On Friday, 3 March 2017 at 07:51:06 UTC, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:
> Not sure what you mean by private session, but they build up a model of your fields of interest which is why you are getting relevant results.

Most browsers have a private browsing mode, which separates cache/cookies/etc. from your regular browsing. Doing this will usually allow you to temporarily reset your filter bubble.

> I get those same results when using my regular browser, but when using another browser I get "ad lib" etc, nothing about programming.

You might be hitting a different Google server. It's a common misconception that all search queries go through the same algorithm and database all the time; I remember reading somewhere that Google might have up to hundreds of variations of search algorithms available at any single point in time.

The results I get on all browsers (incl. my cell phone in a private session on 3G):

1. "Libraries and Frameworks" on our wiki
2. awesome-d
3. D-Lib Magazine (unrelated to D).

I think Google has a local data center here in Moldova, so it's likely that all my search queries go there.

I do get a "Did you mean" suggestion for "ad libs", is that what you meant?
March 04, 2017
On Saturday, 4 March 2017 at 11:16:17 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
> Most browsers have a private browsing mode, which separates cache/cookies/etc. from your regular browsing. Doing this will usually allow you to temporarily reset your filter bubble.

As Andrej said above, clearing cookies (or browsing privately) had not been enough, although it might have some partial effect, or not. Google try their best and they may track individual IP addresses (even dynamic) or whatever data is available to them, besides localizing results per countries and regions of course.
March 04, 2017
On Saturday, 4 March 2017 at 11:26:31 UTC, XavierAP wrote:
> Google try their best and they may track individual IP addresses (even dynamic)

I am not going to debate this but it might be worth considering that this is simply not true, as far as search result customization goes.

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