Journal: News & Comment

Is this what you were looking for?

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Doug Bowman writes about something I've noticed here before, and points to a funny example from Matt Haughey on the subject: essentially, Google sometimes screws up, giving a high ranking to page that's really not about, or shouldn't be taken as authoritative on, a subject. And people seem not to notice that when they visit.

Many people probably make the same mistake I do, and assume that everyone interacts with search engines as they do. But people don't. Some people browse through several pages of Google results for their first search, then give up. Others, like me, see if what they want is on the first page or two, and then recast their query if not. Still others, also like me some of the time, try a different search site (yes, there are others).

In the end, though, you have to look at a page you go to from a search and try to figure out if it's what you wanted. But if you go here or here and try to get in touch with this guy, you're just not thinking clearly.

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