On Search Engines

[dots and spots Jeff]

{Before I begin, I do not claim to be any sort of expert on search engines. I am simply a user of them who enjoys reading the debates and discussions of the experts in the field.}

Yesterday lunch time I wanted to know the kick off times of the day's 6 nation rugby matches.

So I entered into Google "6 Nations Kick Off Times" and was presented a page full of results, but the titles & descriptions all referred to matches played weeks, and in some cases, years ago. On clicking through the top couple of sites I was able to find want I wanted, but had there been a site that - in its title and description - and made it clear that they had today's kick off times then this is one of the ones I'd have clicked.

Is this, then, a potential chink in the SEs armour? Whilst in many cases longevity is a good thing - a sign of stability and reliability - there are clearly some cases when where up to date info is what is required and Google doesn't necessarily deliver.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

[jjreview]

No ... not a chink. Did you enter it in quotes as it appears? Or is that the string that you put in. When you put something in quotes, eg. "Jennifer Ellison" you get pages that contain that string.

When you put just jennifer ellison in it, you'll get results for jennifer connely, ellison carter, etc.

Also, you have the SEO to deal with. SEO ... search engine optimization ... or for you brits... optimisation ... has to do with people selling stuff scrambling to be on page 1. So based on your string, I can sell you 6 books, I can sell you an account at Nations Bank, I can probably try to sell you some Off mosquito spray, and then the New York Times. Each of those will just poison your results.

And then there's black-hat SEO. Have you ever landed on a page and can't for the life of you imagine how Google took you there? No jennifer no ellison, no jennifer ellison? Well, the black-hat SEO's put that text somewhere in the markup but told the HTML not to render it on the screen. I hate that!

If you want to get good with googling, study advanced search.

6 nations "kick off time" rugby -"new york times" site:hteeteepee://*.rugby.co.uk

... will search only sites on the rugby.co.uk domain for results that contain "kick off time", 6, or "nations" AND DONT CONTAIN "new york times" (see the minus).

As a computer programmer, I had to master the search engine before I could ever find anything.

Hope this helps.

[cmcp]

For real time news I use Twitter.

[dots and spots Jeff]

If you want to get good with googling, study advanced search.

6 nations "kick off time" rugby -"new york times" site:hteeteepee://*.rugby.co.uk

... will search only sites on the rugby.co.uk domain for results that contain "kick off time", 6, or "nations" AND DONT CONTAIN "new york times" (see the minus).

As a computer programmer, I had to master the search engine before I could ever find anything.

Hope this helps.

Thanks - I get what you're saying, but you are clearly a bit of an expert, I'm intersted (but lacking in knowledge!) in search engines and how they work, but the average user isn't.

I was just a little suprised on Saturday to not be able to find what I was looking for easily via Google - in some respects its encouraging to find somewhere where (the sports section of) an old fashioned newspaper still trumps the mighty Google.

I'll try again this Saturday (another round of matches) - I'll see if Twitter can come up with the goods.

Thanks again

Jeff

p.s. why htteeteepee in the search?

[Abbey Business Centres]

Search Engine Land posed a very similar question to yours Jeff - only they used the Superbowl as opposed to the Six Nations:

http://searchengineland.com/searching-for-the-superbowl-start-time-how-are-the-engines-the-nfl-and-cbs-doing-35451

Interesting to see that they kind of blame the major US networks (Fox, CBS etc) for not adapting their content to the needs posed by one simple question regarding kick off times

Interesting reading indeed

James

[OldWelshGuy]

This is an advanced feature where you can select time based results.