Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Using Google for Evil...

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 23:49:11 -0500 (CDT), Mike Miller
<EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, Jonathan King wrote:
> 
> >> If so, I could really use that!
> >
> > Well, yeah.  I guess I can see why. :-)
> 
> Not just for schizo* but for many other things.

Sure, but it really does stink when the primary literature of a field
has such an enormous keyword spread.
 
> I was going to ask next about the use of the OR boolean operator, but then
> I though I'd just read the Google web site.  Under the Advanced Search
> section...
> 
> http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
> 
> I read that OR exists, and am directed to the Basics of Search page for
> more information, but there is no more information.  Anyway, I guess all I
> need to know is that OR exists.  It has to be capitalized though.  If not
> capitalized, Google makes this suggestion:
> 
> Lowercase "or" was ignored. Try "OR" to search for either of two terms.

Yes.  Now I think it's worth noting that the boolean terms were not in
the very first version of Google (I'm not sure even "-" for not was
there, and that a lot of the charm of Google is that you just type
stuff in and it works.  A lot of people get the jitters when it comes
to making boolean searches or use fields like "site:"

As to why they don't advertise OR, just as you say:
 
> I've gone all these years without using OR.  I think that's because I need
> it very rarely.  

Plus, OR generates more results, and (I'm guessing) loads the server
more heavily since to compute an OR from their usual index, I think
they search for term A, then term B, then merge those lists together
by page rank, then kill dups, then...

Anyway you slice it, it's more work.  Especially since users
intuitively learn to do stuff like:

schizophrenia    
shizotypy          
schizophrenia -schizotypy
schizotypy -schizophrenia

To shape the search the way they really want it.

jking
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