Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
One of the odd things I noticed about Google+ when it launched was its hobbled search system. That was why hashtags didn't work when it was first launched. I deduced that Google+ was using a word index to facilitate search, rather than looking for the string you typed (if you didn't type a word, it would search for the closest word and search for that. The idea of Google determining what words we can search for - and what words we can't - has Orwellian implications I don't even want to think about. And now, it appears, the word index system is spreading to the main Google search. That would explain why such an oddball string as 'OUseful.info' no longer turns up in Google searches. It's a string that is pretty unique to Tony Hirst - and definitely not on Google's list of Approved Words. I don't see how this will help with Google's main problem, which is SEO spam - quite the opposite. But Google Search is definitely on the bubble so far as I'm concerned - I never thought I'd ever leave Google search, but then again, I never thought it would ever become useless.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 10:39 p.m.

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