Re:Google’s “million’s of search results” are not being served
by rhdunn on Monday October 03, 2022 @03:23PM
(#33072365)
The issue is that the number of results is often an estimate for performance reasons. So the results should say something like "around X results" or "approximately X results" to make that clearer.
If Google or some other search-based service had to check every document for a match to verify that the results were accurate (to avoid false positives and negatives) then 1) search would be slow; 2) it would be expensive; and 3) the search couldn't handle many requests (as that would kill the database server).
What search engines/databases tend to do is make use of fast and efficient lookup tables or indices, then perform operations on those results (such as joining between different tables) depending on the particular search terms/options (e.g. if you are searching for a specific content type or timeframe).
There is a lot of complexity in making the numbers and results both accurate and efficient.
If everyone lies, that doesn't make it right to lie, no matter the technological barrier.
We should't accept and normalize this behavior. If a search claims there are six million results, I should be able to see any or all of those claimed.
If Google (and the others) can't let me see all the results, be honest and tell me. "Google found 6,553,500 results. Showing the 5,000 most relevant."
Google advertises that it has x results, but there is no way to know if that is true, or a lie.
Is it really so hard to not lie to your users?