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November 23, 2010

7 Google Search Annoyances

Here are some of the most annoying Google Search bugs I've found recently:

1. Google's keyboard shortcuts are useful if you want to select a search result, but Google doesn't remember the page you selected when you go back to the search results page.

2. To add insult to injury, Google doesn't scroll to the search result you've clicked on after visiting the page and returning to the Google SERP.

3. Let's say that a search result snippet includes a useful information and you want to copy it. If you double click on a word from the snippet, you'll trigger Google's instant previews.

4. If your query includes quotes, Google's suggestions aren't useful because they ignore your quotes.

5. Google shows too many results from a single domain. If your query includes keywords associated with a site, Google may show up to 7 results from a domain. Google also lets you see other results from the same domain, but there are many duplicates.


6. If you restrict the results to visited pages and perform the same search using Google Web History, you'll get different results.

7. Sometimes personalization goes too far and replaces the top search result for a navigational query.


Did you find other annoyances?

20 comments:

  1. Do a search for something. Look at what position the updates link on the left is at, and also look at the frequency graph at the top of the page. Now click in the search box again so the cursor is there, and press "enter." Where's the updates link now? Does the graph look the same?

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  2. the biggest one, the shortcuts override the normal browser behavior which is to scroll down using the arrow keys

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  3. Agree with BlackTigerX.. I find that issue both disconcerting and annoying.

    Also, it makes it more difficult to use the backspace key to return to a previous page as it seems to always return to a state wherein the cursor is active in the search box, therefore requiring extra steps other than hitting the backspace key to go to a page that you were on prior to the search.

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  4. Most annoying thing: you search for something with multiple keywords and the ¤#$@! Google AI in its ultimate wisdom decides to replace one of the keywords with the one it likes better, one that looks similar but is completely unrelated. It's not what I was searching for you dumbwit bot!

    Placing a + sign in front of the botched keyword fixes it but I yearn for the times when Google didn't pull these kinds of stunts.

    Maybe there's a URL parameter I could pass that would disable this keyword swap?

    +I +really +don't +want +to +put +plus +sings +everywhere!!!

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  5. Like BlackTigerX said, I hate how I can no longer use the up/down arrow keys on my laptop to scroll Google's SERP. It's very frustrating!

    Here's my wishlist of changes for Google:
    http://blogoscoped.com/forum/175572.html#id175590

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  6. Other annoying thing: sometimes when I search with the new instant search I receive no results, which I have to click again on search button for to receive and get search results.

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  7. Agree with Adam, this is the most annoying bug (read: "feature") of Google Instant, enough to make me want to adopt Bing forever.

    You type your keywords fast enough, you hit enter...you see the results for a split second, and then a magnificient blank page. And Google just tells you to click "enter" to show results :|

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  8. The instant feature can be disabled but keyboard shortcuts (specially up/down key) are really annoying. There must be an option to disable it.

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  9. 1. It keeps switching to French language results based on my French IP address, despite the fact that I have English accept-language, English browser, English OS, English search preferences, I'm logged into my Google account with English preferences.... but Google always seems to think they know best what language to use!!!

    2. Image search shows a great set of results and then a second later the first page changes to something different and/or all the images are now hidden. The subsequent pages are fine, but the first page of results requires a lightning hand to click on what you want before it goes.

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  10. Some web sites come up frequently in the top results and do not offer any value. expert-exchange is a typical example.

    I would love a feature that allows me to exclude some addresses from the search.

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  11. Search result beneficiary if submit something then that same contents are catched and represented by google crawler system in almost 18 forms of positioning in result search. As an ace seo expert u must catch which crawler axe is running at that given time.

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  12. Is there a way you can specify a Google search page in English? I was in Palau last week using Firefox on the hotel wifi. The first time, Google was from the Philippines. For the next week it was literally in Chinese from Hong Kong. I could type in Google.com but I was sent instantly back to China.

    Any suggestions?

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  13. @Added Entry: It's difficult because Google will fight you every step of the way. I've seen tourists using hotel computers literally in tears because Google keeps switching away from the language they want. Google think they're smart translating every language name into another language, but it means that you may not be able to work out what "English" is in that other language ( it's scary enough in Eastern Europe without attempting it in an Asian language!)

    I usually try changing the domain to .COM or .CO.UK and then look for a #hl= query tag in the address bar that I can change to "en".

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  14. @Added Entry:

    Whenever you're redirected to a different Google domain, you can click on "Google.com in English" and switch to Google US. You can also use this URL: http://www.google.com/ncr (ncr=no country redirect).

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  15. #5 can be quite beneficial to businesses. why not dominate the search results? users can always type in a new search for better or different results

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  16. @Alex: I wish that option was available for integrated Google search - you are forced to go to the Google homepage each time to get that option ... and then it doesn't last long anyway. Everything switches to another language very quickly.

    Logging into my Google account via Chrome allows all sorts of magic to be synchronised between my browsers on different machines. But it can't respect the saved settings on even one.

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  17. It still niggles that news search defaults to "Sorted by relevance" (which usually means a big name provider). I have to change it to "sorted by date" manually every time.

    Why can't I choose my setting?

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  18. My top hate is the customized searches, fair enough they can have it there but don't make it the default setting!

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  19. I have an idea for the developers of chrome. Where should I post it? I have to agree with most of you on the search procedures built into Chrome or should I say Google Chrome. It just seems to be customized for google's ideas only. And I don't know what their mind is on exactly.

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