I wanted to see how the price of Cubby compared to Dropbox, so I ran a quick little search and got...

(Click to embiggen)

... huh. Good... job Google?

Note: I've run that search now three times, and I can replicate these results pretty well. Searching from Firefox gives expected results... interesting.

Curious... did you do it from the google home page, or by using the search feature in chrome's address bar? [1]

Just tried it from the google home page and the first link is I get is https://www.cubby.com/, which I guess is similar results from your FF search. Same results if I use the search bar in FFox (which is configured to his google.co.uk)

Is this actually a "google search" fail or a chrome fail?

(yeah, I see the irony in that last statement)

[1] I don't use chrome, but I'm guessing it features "search from address bar" 

Are you logged into your google account on Firefox when doing the search?  If not that could be the difference rather than really being by browser.

Nope, it was Google shitting itself. If I search for it now, it returns the correct result-- and I haven't changed anything on my end.

Google actually manages to mess up many of their services quite often it seems, but they're usually good at detecting that there's a problem and swapping out one virtualized system for a fresh one. This usually fixes the problem, but not always; Google services that require "interesting" amounts of statefulness are significantly less reliable at the observable level. I'm also really unsurprised at their load balancer including the identity of the browser in its selection algorithm.

None of which is very WTFy though. Not unless you count the level of customer service you get...

https://www.google.com/search?q=cubby%20pro works fine. Don't know about that extra stuff in the query string throwing it off though.

The fact that he now gets the results he was looking for indicates this was just a temporary brain fart in one of Googles data centers.  However, Google's search results suck most of the time.  For example if you look at his screenshot you'll see that the words "cubby" and "pro" appear in every result.  Of course they are completely unrelated to each other, but Google doesn't care.  I get the feeling that they are only concerned with returning the largest number of search results possible (possibly feeling competitive pressure from Bing?) regardless of whether or not those search results are actually useful.

El_Heffe:

The fact that he now gets the results he was looking for indicates this was just a temporary brain fart in one of Googles data centers.  However, Google's search results suck most of the time.  For example if you look at his screenshot you'll see that the words "cubby" and "pro" appear in every result.

 

You acknowledge that Blakey's results were a transient anomaly.

Then you claim it's actually a normal thing.

Then you use Blakey's unique results to support this idea.

Then you expect people to take you seriously.

It's a little weird, frankly.

In addition, I once googled for "asian guys dancing" because I couldn't remember the band name, and the very first results were indeed the Japanese electro-ballad dance group World Order that I was looking for.

dhromed:

In addition, I once googled for "asian guys dancing" because I couldn't remember the band name, and the very first results were indeed the Japanese electro-ballad dance group World Order that I was looking for.

That is a bad result. The correct result is this.

Why did I click on that link?

WHY?

dhromed:

El_Heffe:

The fact that he now gets the results he was looking for indicates this was just a temporary brain fart in one of Googles data centers.  However, Google's search results suck most of the time.  For example if you look at his screenshot you'll see that the words "cubby" and "pro" appear in every result.

 

You acknowledge that Blakey's results were a transient anomaly.

Then you claim it's actually a normal thing.

Then you use Blakey's unique results to support this idea.

Then you expect people to take you seriously.

It's a little weird, frankly.

No, that was not my point, which maybe I didn't make clearly enough.  Typically, when searching for something I get a few results that might be what I'm looking for and thousands of garbage results.  In Blakey's case, he just got the garbage, but now things are back to more or less normal.  The problem is Google's search results suck so badly anymore it's getting harder to tell transient anomalies from just plain sucky search results.

dhromed:

In addition, I once googled for "asian guys dancing" because I couldn't remember the band name, and the very first results were indeed the Japanese electro-ballad dance group World Order that I was looking for.

I've done similar searches, and yes sometimes you get lucky.  But that's the problem.  It's just luck.  Many times I know exactly what I'm looking for and still get thousands of garbage results

 

El_Heffe:

In Blakey's case, he just got the garbage

It's not garbage, it's the set of results from Google Books. The problem is I didn't want to search for a book, I wanted to search for a website.

El_Heffe:

Typically, when searching for something I get a few results that might be what I'm looking for and thousands of garbage results.  In Blakey's case, he just got the garbage, but now things are back to more or less normal.  The problem is Google's search results suck so badly anymore it's getting harder to tell transient anomalies from just plain sucky search results.

We must search for very different things, or maybe I'm just a lot better at it than you are, because I typically find plenty of very relevant results.

Google has indeed become much less effective in finding anything. Not sure if it's Google being crap or Internet containg nothing but crap. It's especially bad when searching for programming related things, like exception messages. Always two pages of crap before a single discussion about the searched error, and even then it's some expert-sex-change garbage. It takes serious refinement to find anything.

Cassidy:

Why did I click on that link?

WHY?

It /is/ a parody.

El_Heffe:

The problem is Google's search results suck so badly anymore

 

This isn't my experience. :\

veggen:

Not sure if it's Google being crap or Internet containg nothing but crap. It's especially bad when searching for programming related things, like exception messages

Do you have an account, and are logged in, with Google? I tend to find the opposite and the results are more aligned with what I'm searching for. For example the first result for 'coax' is for the two-syllable version of the word rather than the one syllable, the first result for 'man yes' pulls up the manual page for 'yes' etc.

blakeyrat:

That is a bad result. The correct result is this.

 

No, no no. Galo Sengen!

PJH:

Do you have an account, and are logged in, with Google? I tend to find the opposite and the results are more aligned with what I'm searching for. For example the first result for 'coax' is for the two-syllable version of the word rather than the one syllable, the first result for 'man yes' pulls up the manual page for 'yes' etc.

 

Information Bubbling is equal parts helpful and detrimental.

boomzilla:

maybe I'm just a lot better at it than you are, because I typically find plenty of very relevant results.

 

Probably because there's not that many results for "purple dildo maintanence".

PJH:

It /is/ a parody.

I'll revisit it, then. Looked too Hard Gay at first impressions (I didn't have sound on).

dhromed:

No, no no. Galo Sengen!

 

Once bitten...

 

 

 Man, you haven't lived until you've watched some of that.