God Dammit, Google, Answer the question I ASKED, NOT the closest one you can find in your memory banks!

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m perfectly okay with you saying “I don’t have an answer for that question.”
I ask, “Why can’t I install instagram on my Macbook from the App Store?”, I’m totally NOT okay with you answering the entirely different question Is there a desktop app for Instagram in the Apple Store?

You want to make an AI that won’t turn me hostile to the whole subject? Make an AI that will ONLY answer the questions I ASK it. I don’t really care if it costs you an opportunity to score some ad revenue. Just do what I tell you to do! I’m paying good money for internet access. I EXPECT it to respond to MY commands.

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And whilst you’re at it come over, clean my house and make me dinner!

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It’s almost as if you think I’m being unreasonable.

4

Since Google has no idea of the exact answer to your question, since it doesn’t understand the question in any real sense, it’s always going to give an approximation. Always. Even if the answer seems to be precisely what you’re looking for, it’s just an approximation. In that case, you asked a question that had lots of linking support to provide a good answer. A vague or rarely-asked (or rarely-answered) question will give weak or even off-topic answers.

5

Then why didn’t it provide me with a good answer? A GOOD. answer would have involved a discussion of who made the decision to not make desktop Instagram available in the App Store, and their reasoning behind the decision. A GREAT answer would have provided contact information for the individual(s) responsible, so that I could attempt to persuade them to reconsiderimeanchange their decision

P.S. “reconsiderimeanchange” looks like it might be hard for most readers to parse. Does Discourse have an easy way to code for a strikethrough (like vBB did)?

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I think your question really is, How did Google develop its search engine? You may want to look up PageRank.

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Ta (and fuck you and the character minimums you rode in on, Discourse).

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If I really wanted to know how Google developed its search engine, I’d probably be the kind of user who’s un-lazy enough to actually go through the workarounds to get Instagram on my MacBook.

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Because the Internet didn’t contain a good answer. Or the Internet contained more almost-relevant answers than the specific answer you were looking for.

If most people are looking for a different answer than you are, you’re going to get the most popular one. “More referenced, more crosslinked” is “correct” as far as Google is concerned.

Since it isn’t an AI, it doesn’t even come close to “understanding” what you’re searching for. It’s just saying “here’s what most people want when they use that combination of search tersm.”

11

I can’t understand you fairly frequently so I can see how Google will get stumped from time to time.

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That’s my gripe exactly! If the Internet doesn’t contain a good answer, THAT should be the first (my preference would be ONLY) thing that comes up! If they simply HAVE to make “suggestions,” they can put those later.

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BTW, if you stop polluting your search terms with extra question verbage, you may get relevant answers. Also, you may have to tweak your search wording to avoid other uses of the key search terms in more recent popular contexts, like “Macintosh Instagram” mostly focuses on IG accounts from someone calling themselves “Macintosh”, but “MacOS Instragram” gets you search results in the correct arena.

And as a general rule in the 21st Century, asking “why” questions will result in no answers, because corporations don’t explain their decisions. There is no “why” on record, so asking for one will make Google come up with something else. (Because again, it’s a search engine, and stuff peripherally related to your search are valid returns, even if you don’t think they are.)

It’s not an AI. Stop treating it like one. It’s an ancient search algorithm using a large backing database of internet content, but it’s not going to comprehend your question in the same fashion as an LLM will.

OTOH, it won’t hallucinate bogus “right” answers. If the answer to your specific search isn’t out there, it’s not going to make shit up; it’s going to present search results that are in the general category of what is most recent and popular for your search, even if those results don’t get you where you want to be.

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Gotta give you props on that one; that was a pretty good burn. :slight_smile:

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Is there a search engine that does? If I get to it, I can ask it to find me an easy way to block Google.

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And I’m glad you took it in the spirit in which it was intended :slight_smile:

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Try asking an actual LLM, like ChatGPT. It probably won’t know the “why” answer, because (again) companies don’t explain shit. But it might find information you didn’t know that may satisfy your question as best as possible.

Or it could lie its cheating mechanical ass off. So I wouldn’t make a habit of that.

ETA: I just tried what I suggested, using whatever default the ChatGPT website uses when you just log in and don’t fiddle with any of the settings.

FWIW, this checks out OK (as far as I can be driven to care) with the other information I derived from my disciplined and focused Google queries, so I suspect it’s not mostly hallucinations.

Note that the real “why” question (why there is no Instragram MacOS app) is not answered, because again, corporations don’t believe they owe anyone any explanation for their choices.

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Plus BJ.

19

Yeah Google has become basically useless for any kind of specific query. If there is a common answer to a question like yours even if it’s not remotely the question you are asking, you are screwed. You will get a dozen AI generated answers to other question and nothing related to yours

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Because Google doesn’t care about your question. They want to sell you a new Macbook.