Going crazy: how to get Google to do honest, genuine "AND" search?

[Gunnar_t]

I'm an experienced searcher and computer user. But I do not understand why Google seems to consistently do OR searches, when it claims to do AND searches (see, for expl, the Advanced search page).

EXAMPLE (one of dozens I could provide): I searched for Mark Twain sayings , and was told thee were about 965,000 hits. Then I added the word reputation , looking for any quotes from Twain that had that word in them--and was told three were 25,800,000 hits!

How could that be? Adding the word reputation to a search that produced 965,000 hits should narrow the search and produce FEWER results.

This happens consistently, with almost all the searches I do.

[Tubby]

AHHH. This is because you have misunderstood the updated Google philosophy.

The new Google philosophy is.
"If it looks like a duck - walks like a duck - Quack likes a duck. . . It could be a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo "

[Gunnar_t]

Yeah, exactly. I was searching for something the other day, and there was a word in the search, or phrase I was searching, like "kill". And google returned all sorts of words that "had something in common with 'kill', like till and killing and so on. So I put 'kill' in quotes, but that did not change the results. SHEESH!!! Once upon a time, Google was far more well-behaved and polite and looked for what i told it to look for....Bing is no better.

[Tubby]

My mother used to hide the chocolates right at the back of the fridge in cereal box. This way when us kids opened the fridge we only saw what she wanted us to see. I sometime wonder If Google employs psychic beyond the grave channelist/spiritualist, who communicate with people like my Mother to get advise on the way search results are displayed.

I can think of no other logical reason for a recent search I did on line for a winter jacket. It could only have been my mothers spirit that directed Google to add a Bias toward 'warm underwear' . .

[RainyKnight]

How funny. I always have this problem. I have even tried placing the words within quotes and it didn't work. I do love how your mom kept her chocolates safe Tubby. I have four kids and I'm going to use that. So far I place everything in aluminum foil. No one touches the stuff for fear it's left over meatloaf. Ha,ha.

[deepsand]

Google a while back announced that it was doing away with Boolean searches, advising that the "+" operator would no longer be supported, and that double-quotes should now be used.

However, I have witnessed countless instance where it has actively removed the double-quotes, presumably so as to manipulate the SERPs and/or AdWords displays to Google's advantage.

[Mcyclone]

As I have also experience this many times while searching any for me but tell me one thing if we get same results by using double quotes than what was its benefits using it. Or is there any other search query in order to get exactly what we want?

[LD]

I'm getting pretty much completely different results with, and without quotes on most keyword search phrases.

[deepsand]

As I have also experience this many times while searching any for me but tell me one thing if we get same results by using double quotes than what was its benefits using it. Or is there any other search query in order to get exactly what we want?

I'm getting pretty much completely different results with, and without quotes on most keyword search phrases.

No, there is no longer a way to force Google to give only exact match results at all times.

And, oddly enough, exact match frequently gives the [/b]more[/b] results, which is logically impossible.

[Money_Time]

I noticed this months ago, their results are terrible. I used to be an expert in quickly finding answers to questions in Goo by using advanced operators or just properly phrasing questions. This no longer works and adding quotes just makes everything worse now. They seemed to be completely uninterested in providing answers, and Goo is more worried about impressions or adviews than quality. They are gearing up for big business advertising and killing off the small guy. I hope bing can figure out the marketing before it's too late, because Google is doing just as efficient a job of forcing people out of business as the US Gov't is. Google is killing jobs... how's that for a headline?