Searching for a Good Search Engine

S

s|b

Anyway, you can try it yourself. I just repeated the search for the
phrase "rhododendron macrocephalum" (don't include the quote marks!).
Startpage finds only the one Dutch site;
Click to expand...

I got several results. More then 10 pages (50 results per page). No
Dutch site though.
Google finds that and three
other sites in English.
Click to expand...

Google is showing '51.600 results'.
If the Startpage search is limited to English
only, it again reports: "Your search - "rhododendron macrocephalum" -
did not match any documents.".
Click to expand...

Again, loads of results...
 
J

Jeff Layman

I got several results. More then 10 pages (50 results per page). No
Dutch site though.


Google is showing '51.600 results'.


Again, loads of results...
Click to expand...

You are not limiting the search to the exact expression. When Google
(or Startpage) finds very few or no results for a expression of several
words it searches for any of those words. You can stop this by
unchecking a box in Startpage's options. I expect the same is true of
Google. As you found, there are tens of thousands of hits for the
individual words.
 
S

s|b

You are not limiting the search to the exact expression. When Google
(or Startpage) finds very few or no results for a expression of several
words it searches for any of those words. You can stop this by
unchecking a box in Startpage's options. I expect the same is true of
Google. As you found, there are tens of thousands of hits for the
individual words.
Click to expand...

| (don't include the quote marks!)

Your words. With the quote marks /included/ Google (and Startpage)
should look for the exact expression (without checking an option).

"rhododendron macrocephalum"

Google: 4 results; 1 dutch, 3 english

Some results are left out. To see these results:
<https://encrypted.google.com/search?q="rhododendron+macrocephalum"&gbv=1&filter=0>

Startpage: 1 result; the dutch website

Startpage, only english:

"Because there are not enough results that match your query, we are
showing results without quotes."

So no results.

That /is/ weird...
 
J

Jeff Layman

That /is/ weird...
Click to expand...

Sure is. I've been noticing Startpage's limited search behaviour for
months. When I think it /should/ have found something, but didn't, I go
back to Google. It's very rarely needed, but necessary on occasion.
 
S

Stan Brown

Try this one. At least it doesn't track you.

https://duckduckgo.com/
Click to expand...

I tried it -- it doesn't work with Javascript turned off. There's a
link to a non-JS version, but that doesn't work either.

(I have the latest release of Firefox in Win 7 Home Premium.)
 
S

Stan Brown

Anyway, you can try it yourself. I just repeated the search for the
phrase "rhododendron macrocephalum" (don't include the quote marks!).
Startpage finds only the one Dutch site; Google finds that and three
other sites in English. If the Startpage search is limited to English
only, it again reports: "Your search - "rhododendron macrocephalum" -
did not match any documents.".
Click to expand...

Using Startpage with your quoted string, I got a result "About 5
results (0.15 seconds) " but it showed only one result, the Dutch
one. I can't see any way to make it reveal the other four.

My settings are "prefer pages written in" English.

It doesn't matter whether I have "When searching for an exact phrase
("") - include results without quotes when very few results are
found" checked or unchecked.
 
A

Andy Burns

Stan said:
it doesn't work with Javascript turned off. There's a
link to a non-JS version, but that doesn't work either.
(I have the latest release of Firefox in Win 7 Home Premium.)
Click to expand...

Doesn't help you much, but the non-js version works here with js
disabled (Firefox22, Win7 Home Premium, AdBlock+, Ghostery)
 
J

Johnny

I tried it -- it doesn't work with Javascript turned off. There's a
link to a non-JS version, but that doesn't work either.

(I have the latest release of Firefox in Win 7 Home Premium.)
Click to expand...


I have Firefox 22, Windows 7 Home Premium, and it works fine for me.

I disabled JavaScript in Firefox, and I also use NoScript, and it still
works.
 
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