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From: Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: OT: Search tricks?
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2024 22:11:16 -0000 (UTC)
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Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@comcast.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 12:57:34 -0700, Don Y
> <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> Is there some secret handshake to coerce *etail* sites to pay closer attention
>> to your search criteria?  It seems like they produce results that match ANY
>> of your terms instead of ALL.  So, you scroll through page after page of
>> "no, not that".  Likely because they hope you will "settle" for something else
>> they are offering -- instead of abandoning the site in favor of another
>> vendor.
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> 
>> My current strategy is to specify only and exactly what I know to be
>> a faithful description of the item (e.g., by reading it off the package!)
>> and, look through the results until I encounter the first item that
>> doesn't match all of my search terms -- figuring anything after this is
>> just wishful thinking on their part.
>> 
>> Has anyone else found a better scheme?  Quoting arguments?  etc.
> 
> The best I've come up with is to use "site:<>" (without the quotes) to
> qualify a google search.  For instance google for "item
> site:etail.com".  This is useful for Amazon searches, but google is
> also trying to sell.  Used to be that a + in front of a term required
> it to be present, but now only quoting the term seems to work. It also
> used to be that a - would forbid the term; maybe an "and not"
> qualifier will work.  Takes some fiddling.
> 
> Joe Gwinn
> 

I miss the “advanced search” dialog. 

Peak web was 2008. :(

Cheers 

Phil Hobbs 

-- 
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics