- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 10,797
I had the same epiphany as the OP, but it was about 10 years ago.
Back then (or earlier), I considered my self an expert at crafting a query that found what I was really looking for. It involved some syntax, so more like an SQL query than a 'natural language' query. But as time passed, it became less and less effective and it seemed like I'd get results of "what they wanted me to see" as opposed to "what I asked for".
If you want to know something about things that "everyone" is asking questions about, you can use a 'natural language' query, and very often it will nail it; DW amazes me with her speed to answer questions just talking into her phone and then the phone answers with audio. But the questions are usually main-stream and not that 'hard'.
If you want to know something from far off in the 'tails' of knowledge, you often need to narrow your search. I often find a site that I consider worthy, then append the "site:www.worthysite.com" to my query. I'd like to be able to specify a black list for those "answers" sites that give lame answers, like how to change a tire: 1) park car, 2) assess safety, 3) find spare tire, 4) change the tire. Geeze! Anyway, sounds like I'm producing a matching a rant with the OP, hehe!
Back then (or earlier), I considered my self an expert at crafting a query that found what I was really looking for. It involved some syntax, so more like an SQL query than a 'natural language' query. But as time passed, it became less and less effective and it seemed like I'd get results of "what they wanted me to see" as opposed to "what I asked for".
If you want to know something about things that "everyone" is asking questions about, you can use a 'natural language' query, and very often it will nail it; DW amazes me with her speed to answer questions just talking into her phone and then the phone answers with audio. But the questions are usually main-stream and not that 'hard'.
If you want to know something from far off in the 'tails' of knowledge, you often need to narrow your search. I often find a site that I consider worthy, then append the "site:www.worthysite.com" to my query. I'd like to be able to specify a black list for those "answers" sites that give lame answers, like how to change a tire: 1) park car, 2) assess safety, 3) find spare tire, 4) change the tire. Geeze! Anyway, sounds like I'm producing a matching a rant with the OP, hehe!