Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'Google Complaints'

Google has screwed up yet again

Tony — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

So I go to do my favourite technical question search method which involves searching just the microsoft.public.access newsgroups and it totally fails. Worked just fine a few days ago.

Start at groups.google.com and enter your search term. For example "access books vba" but without the double quotes.

Now if you just click on Search Groups you get many, many useless, duplicate hits. The problem is that there are many web sites out there mirroring the NNTP Usenet and Microsoft newsgroups. All so they can sell Google advertising.

I should note that there are a few genuine online forums such as Utter Access and, think, the Access World forums. However the vast majority are bottom feeding, scum suckers whose only interest is advertising revenue.

So as to limit the search just to the Microsoft newsgroups I would then click on Advanced Search go down to the Group name field and enter microsoft.public.access.*

And that doesn't find any hits. I *KNOW* a few days ago this worked just fine.

So Google has screwed up the NNTP newsgroup search interface yet again. Ahh, for the good old days of dejanews.com and deja.com. They did only one thing and did it well.

Google is becoming even stupider

Tony — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:00:00 GMT

I still use the Google Groups Advanced Search even though the group wildcard search is broken. Grudgingly but I still use it despite all the crap that is pulled up in the search.

But now that page has lost the date range searching. I can't tell the search to pull in only results from the last year or two because previous results will only apply to older versions of Access.

Google's motto of "Do no evil" should be replaced by "We're becoming more useless with every enhancement."

Click on the Google Complaint tag below for my previous rants on how useless Google is becoming.

Searching for a "reserved error" message

Tony — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:00:00 GMT

So you've got one of those dreaded reserved error messages. "Reserved error (-9999): there is no message for this error." But how to attempt to troubleshoot this message? You're not getting any hits.

The most important thing is to remove the - (minus sign) in front of the error number. Otherwise the search engines assume you don't want any hits with that number in the returned links.

Now search at your favourite search engine and see if you get any hits in the first page or two that look somewhat like a resource web page. Use syntax like "reserved error" 1517. Now note that I have a page on 1517 so it will be the first hit. That page is useful. (Or so I like to think.)

But what about all the other hits? With the exception of Utter Access and the Access World all those other pages are useless copies of the Microsoft and Usenet NNTP newsgroups. I say useless because they all duplicate each others data and exist only to get money from Google advertising. In my not so humble opinion Google should not allow them to sell ads but I doubt Google listens to me.

In which case if you are searching for an answer visit Google, click on More and choose Groups. Now do your search here.

Unfortunately Google broke the Advanced Groups Search a few months ago which allowed you to limit your search to the microsoft.public.access.* and comp.databases.ms-access newsgroups. I mean you can't So I'd suggest adding the word access to your search.

Finally if you want to ask a question I'd suggest the Microsoft Office Online Access Database General Questions forum or either of the two above mentioned online forums.

Google search is becoming more and more useless

Tony — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT

So I'm trying to research a bizarre problem within Windows Vista under Virtual PC 2007. Now given that Google is indexing many, many online forums which are mirrors of Usenet and the Microsoft newsgroups I don't even bother searching for complex technical questions at the main Google screen.

Instead I switch to the Google groups web page and key in the group, or groups with a *, name. In this case microsoft.public.virtualpc. And then I key in my search terms.

And now Google is totally ignoring my selection of newsgroup microsoft.public.virtualpc. I do *NOT* want the many similar hits that occur in Windows Vista. I want just those that occur when running Windows Vista under Virtual PC.

Do you see microsoft.public.virtualpc anywhere there? I sure don't.

According to my fellow MVPs this has been broken for a month or more.

Google has become downright useless for complex technical searches.

I can't download Google Earth

Tony — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

And I can't figure out how to tell Google that their web page doesn't work.

Visit Download Google Earth 4.2 (beta) for PC, Mac or Linux and click on that Agree and Download button. For me, as of this writing nothing happens. Both in IE 7 and Firefox latest version.

Now IE does tell me that there is an "Error on Page" after I click the button.

So how do I tell Google there's a problem? After a mindless wild goose chase through the About Google >> Contact US I see the following:

You can find up-to-date info for all of our services – from Google Web Search and Gmail to Google AdWords and Google AdSense – by visiting the Google Help page. From there, you can navigate to a specific service's help pages and browse through hundreds of commonly asked questions, find answers in a help group, or send us your comments and suggestions.

So I go to Google Earth Help Centre and look about. Nothing useful there so maybe the following will help.

Visit the Google Earth Community to share your expertise and experiences.

Oh, I have to register. Yet another fricking register page. No thanks. I've registered at enough useless websites, waited for my emailed confirmation and all that cr*p. And that page is slow.

Hint: Why not use a gmail address?

Google, you're as bad as Microsoft. No, you're worse. Microsoft has comment buttons on the bottom of their web pages. And I know people look at those. Google doesn't have any.

I'll try again in a few days or week or two.

A tip on searching Google

Tony — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

I was doing a search on PDFCreator and "Microsoft Access". Google was being helpful by asking "Did you mean: "PDF Creator" "microsoft access" ". I can live with that.

However Google was then showing me all kinds of hits with PDF Creator. Which I did not want. Hello Google!!!! That's very annoying behavior.

The key though is to put quotes around the word PDFCreator. So now my search term is "PDFCreator" "microsoft access". And that gave me the results that were slightly more useful.

But only slightly more useful. Google searching is getting fairly useless these days when it comes to searching for obscure problems especially now that Google is indexing NNTP newsgroups as forums in their Web search. Way too many useless hits. But I still use Google. <sigh>

Still way too many hits from those web sites featuring NNTP forums and Google ads. Thus Google is making money of my 33,708 postings (at this moment in time) from *rsehole web forum sites. I'm sure Google is in no hurry to fix this problem that is making them money but upsetting the folks who use their search engine.

Google's motto: "Don't be evil" - Hogwash

Tony — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

I'm very upset with Google's policy of indexing and allowing Google advertising on forum web sites which are "slurping" content from Usenet and Microsoft newsgroup servers.

When I go looking for a technical answer on Google's main search page I used to get just web pages. If the question is a common one then they are likely to be found on web pages such as the several hundred pages of advanced Microsoft Access content on my web site. Web pages can be much better than forums for common questions and answers because they are organized, are reasonably well written and usually updated on a regular basis.

Usenet and Microsoft newsgroups and web forums are excellent for finding answers to more obscure or rarer questions. Or when you'd like to have a discussion or when you don't know the correct terminology. Frequently though web forums are full of other extra junk and fluff that are quite useless for answering your more general questions.

If I wanted to get a newsgroup answer I would use the Google Groups search engine. Furthermore I would use the Advanced Groups Search option and restrict my query to just the Access, Excel, Word, XP or other set of newsgroups of interest.

But what really upsets me is that those twenty or more forum web sites which "slurp" their content from Usenet or Microsoft newsgroups. Such as the comp.* and the microsoft.public.* newsgroups. I have, last time I looked over 32,000 postings almost entirely answering questions in MS Access. in the comp.database.msaccess or the microsoft.public.access.* newsgroups.

These "slurping" forum web sites, who are copying my newsgroup answers, are making money off my postings.

Proof? Search on a phrase of my newsgroup signature line at Google. For example "Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems" At the time of this posting the first six URLs are from sites selling Google ads: buzz.omgili.com (ok this site links to another site selling Google ads; www.wiredbox.net; www.eggheadcafe.com; www.mydatabasesupport.com; www.ureader.com; objectmix.com. The next four are fine.

The second search page has only two that are "slurpers" www.ureader.com and www.kaizenlog.com. The third page has www.developerfood.com, www.accessmonster.com, www.nnseek.com and mssql.meetholland.com.

Now lets try searching on my email address I use for posting ttoews@telusplanet.net First page shows www.thescripts.com, www.dbforums.com, objectmix.com, www.mydatabasesupport.com, www.developersdex.com and www.pcreview.co.uk. I won't bore you reciting the rest of the URLs.

Note that I don't mind forums such as Utter Access who are not "slurping" answers from the newsgroups. You must visit the web site to post the question or view the answers.

In my opinion Google enabling those forum "slurpers" to make money off my answers is wrong. Furthermore they are violating my copyright. I don't mind Google making some money off my postings given the expense of running the search engines and such. But these other "slurpers", nah they're evil.

Disclaimer. I make a small amount of money with Google ads on my granite.ab.ca web site. So these forum web sites are somewhat decreasing my revenue.

Tony Toews, Microsoft Access Most Valuable Professional since 1999