Google...not a good product search?

[Menard]

Interesting.

Now when I am searching for internet/software/web design related subjects, Google provides an excellent resource, but I have noticed (maybe it's me) that searching for products can leave one with few results among a sea of BS.

I was searching for some suppliers for collectible coins and, regardless of my search terms, I was getting the same big, but useless, stores and plenty of BS that had little to do with my search keywords.

I went out and bought a magazine and easily found some of the resources I needed.

I remember years ago, before I even owned a computer, having used Google to search for stereo photography equipment. By selecting my keywords, on one occasion, I was able to find a simple text page of a dealer in Texas who had a stereo slide projector at a killer price, which I promptly called him and bought.

Have Google and the other search engines become more and more of traps for the consumer where search results are more oriented to reward the best spammers and BSers than provide actually relevant results?

[donecweb]

Have Google and the other search engines become more and more of traps for the consumer where search results are more oriented to reward the best spammers and BSers than provide actually relevant results?

I don't know about all search engines but I believe Google definitely has. I find that almost all the searches I do in Google comes up with non-relevant BS more than good info. I have started to use Google only when I have a very wide topic and need lots of results. Then I take some of the results and use them in other search engines to find good information.

[Andy]

You should use quotes around your search term if you key in a phrase. Otherwise all the keywords are assumed to be relevant in random order.

[Menard]

You should use quotes around your search term if you key in a phrase. Otherwise all the keywords are assumed to be relevant in random order.

I know about that, and hyphens

If I am searching for a specific title, and it must be unique, I can use that. If I am searching for a more general trem, or I have no idea how they listed the item, then it becomes more of a task. Even with using quotations such as "ancient roman coins", I am more likely to get someone's blog where they have used the term than a site which deals in coins. I can also end up with a coin dealer, a large coin dealer, who uses the term, but does not deal in them; they just spammed keywords on their site and their ranking gets them listed rather than a relevant site which actually has anything to do with the subject.

I have found Google to be a good resource when it deals with internet related terms, or when there is a specific product name. I have found all kinds of script by using creative search techniques; I am far from being limited in the ability to use Google to its fullest potential. I was, however, quite taken aback as to how irrelevant the results are when trying to do a product search. They have their own specialized product search (formerly Froogle) but the returns on that often seem either biased or paid.

[SensoVision]

Have Google and the other search engines become more and more of traps for the consumer where search results are more oriented to reward the best spammers and BSers than provide actually relevant results?

Google seems to be main target for abuse since it deliver a lot of traffic. I mostly search for computer/electronic products so could simply use model name and put quotes around, this usually gives me selection of shops. Also product search actually works for my needs.
But I dislike Google for other thing, it's nearly impossible to find reviews there, you still get bunch of shops but not review sites...
Bob, you may try to use AltaVista which I'm almost always use to find official site of some company and not dealers of their products, it's also works sometimes better in finding reviews.

[agent]

Thats the point where other search engines come into place... google din work search it on yahoo n msn

[Queen Bee]

Thats the point where other search engines come into place... google din work search it on yahoo n msn

I think that was the point of the thread. As Menard pointed out, it is a problem with several of the major search engines, not just Google. Also, I particularly hate Yahoo! for shopping. Most of the time the search results aren't even relevant to the original terms. Do a comparison product search on "Organic Brown Rice Flour" through both of Google and Yahoo!'s engines to see what I mean.

[donecweb]

Rachel, I did the comparison and it seems to me that both google and yahoo came up with good relative results.

[Queen Bee]

Rachel, I did the comparison and it seems to me that both google and yahoo came up with good relative results.

Are you using the actual shopping feature?

Here are the comparisons using the product search features of both engines:
Google: Organic Brown Rice Flour
Yahoo: Organic Brown Rice Flour

Notice how the first 20 results yielded by Google's engine were relevant, while 8 out of the first 15 results yielded by Yahoo's engine were not. Anyone searching specifically for "Organic Brown Rice Flour" will not find products such as Pastariso Organic Brown Rice Gluten-Free Pasta Elbows or Nature's Animals® Gourmet Select® Hearty Grain & Honey Organic Biscuits 13 oz. useful.

[donecweb]

Rachel, I did not use the shopping feature and did not know it existed.

[Queen Bee]

Rachel, I did not use the shopping feature and did not know it existed.

Ahh... okay. When I said "product search" I meant the shopping/products tab in particular. It's easy to locate on both Google and Yahoo. On both engines it is labelled "Shopping" and it's tabbed at the top of the page. (The same tabs you would use to locate images, videos, etc.)

I use the shopping/products feature because it allows the user to sort by price, product rating, and seller rating. It is harder to look for the best price using Google's regular search.

[splitter]

Google is pretty bad in this aspect , if you don't get a product in a couple of searches then it might take long on googling for that.