This Blog is not about Hacking

17. February 2007 – 23:38 by Carsten Pötter

Usually I am happy with Google search results. Sometimes I even use Yahoo and Ask but nevertheless I think we need better search engines. Or more specifically search engines that will have a better understanding of search queries. Why? You need any proof? Well, my log files are proof enough.

Someone typed the following words (including spelling error) into the Google search box: hackr password admin mail login. The fourth result on Google.com links to my blog. Though it doesn’t link to some secret, mega hacking tip but to a review of PassPack, an online password manager. Well, that is certainly not what he - I doubt it was a female - was looking for. :D By the way, the guy did not use Google.com but the results from his local Google domain are the same anyway.

I think this is quite funny but it also demonstrates that search engines have to improve and better understand the context of queries in order to provide more suitable results. Don Dodge has a nice little list of search engines which try their best in vertical search as well as experimenting with technology like NLP (Natural Language Processing). Maybe one of them will have the potential to rival the big G someday. Until then don’t expect to find hacking advice on this blog.

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  1. 2 Responses to “This Blog is not about Hacking”

  2. Sorry about that - you wouldn’t *belive* the search strings I find in PassPack’s blog stats.

    Good point on Natural Language Processing though.
    Cheers,
    Tara

    By Tara on Feb 26, 2007

  3. No reason to be sorry, Tara. It’s fun looking at stats and maybe the guy is using PassPack now. :)

    By Carsten Pötter on Feb 26, 2007

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