Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Searching for a Google search answer

The search box on this blog (yes, the one up there at the top of the page to the left)  is really inadequate, so I decided to send a note to a Google friend, asking him/her to forward it to the right people: 

Dear Google, 
Your search engine inside of Blogger is awful.  It actually better to search for something on my blog by using Google search outside of the blog platform than within it.
The problem with the current situation is that people doing a search within the platform often can't find things from previous blog posts.  They assume that the search box is just as good as a regular Google search, but attuned to the specific blog. 
Can you please fix this?  Or just get rid of the search box on Blogger so people aren't misled.

The reply from my friend:

Dear Paul,

We secretly love getting letters like this, because it reinforces the truth that Google search is so good, it's even better than searching within any specific Google product. We hear the same things about non-Google services like Netflix, that Netflix users have given up on searching within Netflix and search the Netflix catalog on Google instead.

Now, we can't officially say this, and internal politics won't allow us to do something as drastic (and obvious) as turning off the search within Blogger. But we know you're right. And we're sort of sorry.

Sincerely,
A Googler who sees enough awareness of this get ignored from the inside and doesn't know where to send it.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The site: operator is useful in this case. It limits google's results to a domain or website.

try searching for: site:runningahospital.blogspot.com

Paul Levy said...

I think you are missing the point. The search box is ON the blog. It does not provide as comprehensive a search as a regular Google search on the web.

Susannah said...

Together with the Subaru post, this one made my day when I got this morning's "Not Running a Hospital" email. You can't make this stuff up!