# How to keep Google from culling my search **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315 "2011-12-24T23:14:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Old\_Eel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/977dab/32.png) [@Old\_Eel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Eel)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/21 "2011-12-25T07:42:51Z")
I’ve had increasing trouble with Google “correcting” the terms I enter to unrelated terms. It’s as if I entered “North Korean money” and got results for “North Korean monkey.” Don’t care if they use an algorithm to anticipate my needs, but then I’d like a “no, that isn’t what I asked” button that would toggle me to verbatim results automatically. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/22 "2011-12-25T17:00:28Z")
The ‘+’ operator has been replaced by double-quotes, even with single words, due to the introduction of Google+ co-opting the symbol. The ‘-’ operator still works. There is also the [Verbatim](http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1734130&topic=1221265&ctx=topic) search tool. If you are not satisifed with Google’s results try [Bing](http://www.bing.com/) advanced search. ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/23 "2011-12-25T17:43:01Z")
“Verbatim” Ok thanks… I used the other tools before…but it was hard to guess the search terms and got limited hits. I guess I shouldn’t rely on Vanilla Google as much. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/24 "2011-12-26T17:20:57Z")
I just googled “turn off google search personalization” and came up with some sites - a couple from google. Good luck. I know what you mean - in some ways google has become a nanny, thinking it knows what is best for me. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/25 "2011-12-26T17:39:07Z")
> [@Old\_Eel](#): > > I’ve had increasing trouble with Google “correcting” the terms I enter to unrelated terms. It’s as if I entered “North Korean money” and got results for “North Korean monkey.” Don’t care if they use an algorithm to anticipate my needs, but then I’d like a “no, that isn’t what I asked” button that would toggle me to verbatim results automatically. It does. Right below the search bar on the results page, there’s a link that says, “Displaying results for north korean monkey. Click here to search for north korean money.” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/26 "2011-12-26T17:50:40Z")
> [@Old\_Eel](#): > > I’ve had increasing trouble with Google “correcting” the terms I enter to unrelated terms. It’s as if I entered “North Korean money” and got results for “North Korean monkey.” Don’t care if they use an algorithm to anticipate my needs, but then I’d like a “no, that isn’t what I asked” button that would toggle me to verbatim results automatically. You do get that…If it autocorrects you, underneath it’ll say: Showing results for [Auto-corrected search string] Search instead for [your search string]? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/27 "2011-12-26T17:50:48Z")
> [@Jamicat](#): > > As if, I’m stuck in a North Korea of Google Search. :dubious: The Dear Leader knows what’s best for you. Enjoy, celebrate, and worship. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/28 "2011-12-27T06:44:23Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > I just googled “turn off google search personalization” and came up with some sites - a couple from google. Good luck. I know what you mean - in some ways google has become a nanny, thinking it knows what is best for me. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels this way. I’ve had Google as my Home Page for many years, but if it gets any worse I’ll ask for recommendations for a less pretentious search engine. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > It does. Right below the search bar on the results page, there’s a link that says, “Displaying results for north korean monkey. Click here to search for north korean money.” Well, yeah. Some of us get this result so often we’re learning to look for it specifically, but that slows us down. I seem to get this nannyistic response to a large portion of my Google searches these days, perhaps because I deliberately include rarish words to tune the search, while Google needs to do me the favor of “spelling correction” on all rarish-looking words. I am not Google knowledgeable. Perhaps there’s some code like “++!!+Monkey” which means “by Monkey I mean Monkey.” It’s enjoyable to learn special codes to tell Google to do special things for you. Less enjoyable is having to learn special codes to prevent Google from doing special things to you. Running on my own laptop now, Google finally seems to have enough cookies installed to guess what language I prefer. This was a major annoyance when I used Internet cafes. Sometimes Google’s home-page didn’t even have a place to click “Google in English.” Frequently “[google.com](http://google.com)” gave Thai script; while “google.co.th” gave English script! :smack: Once they both gave Thai; I tried “[google.fr](http://google.fr)” hoping it would at least have a “Google en Anglais” button, but it was already in English. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mgalindo13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mgalindo13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mgalindo13)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315/29 "2011-12-28T18:05:35Z")
> [@Jamicat](#): > > No …really. > > If you search “BBQ”, your gonna expect a lot of different things. > > If you search “Southern BBQ”, you expect the things like Nothern BBQ to be culled. > > If you search “Louisiana Style BBQ”, you expect all other that aren’t Louisiana style BBQ to be omitted. > BUT NOooo… > Google is like a Badger… > It don’t give a we got pigeon eggs. 😉 You have to understand that search engines can only do so much in terms of “culling” a search. In your example you state “you expect things like Northern BBQ to be culled” - but it’s not that easy. Suppose the page has the following text: _“Now this is a Northern style BBQ recipe as opposed to Southern style. If you want to learn more about Southern BBQ click the link on the left side of the page to go to Jamie’s Southern BBQ World.”_ Search engine spiders “read” the text and index. In this case the term “Southern BBQ” appears more heavily despite the recipe actually being for Northern. This site would then show in your search results for “Southern BBQ”. Now, you can use operators to try to mitigate this, but you can actually end up with a very similar problem. Taking the previous example text. If you were in fact looking for “Northern BBQ” and added **-“southern BBQ”** to your search string that site would not appear, despite being exactly what you were looking for. This is where the human part of searching comes into play. You have to understand the the different ways to narrow down your search to get the most relevant results. Looking at your OP example of egg drop soup. I would start with this search string: **Arrowroot OR “arrow root” “Egg Drop Soup” ~thick** Play with it, try new things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-google-from-culling-my-search/607315.md?page=1)