Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 July 8

= July 8 =

Google Search
Recently I am finding an extraordinarily high number of instances of Google's little feature where it displays search results for something similar to what I typed, instead of what I actually typed. It is getting to be about 1 in 3 searches I am getting "Showing results for [something irrelevent]. Search instead for [my original query]" and as I use Google in my work, this is slowing me down a bit. It may be a Firefox extension acting silly, or it may be a legit Google service being over-zealous (after all, this is Google). Does Google have any option to turn off these alternative searches? Or is it possible to prioritize my original search and have the alternative one appear as the, well, alternative? I don't go into a shop to buy a cake and expect to get confronted with a room full of cars, after all. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  07:20, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * This may be too much typing for what you want, but preceding the word you want with a plus sign (+) should make it use that exact word in the search. --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:02, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * That actually does seem to work - cheers. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  09:24, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I prefer to type my Google queries in "quotation marks", because the search 'feature' You mentioned, KageTora, is in 95% of my search cases rather unhelpful. --Ouro (blah blah) 12:25, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I could do that, but that's sometimes troublesome, as I often switch between Japanese and UK keybord inputs, which makes the " and @ keys swap places - not visibly on my keyboard, of course, so I don't know until I've typed it. For this reason I try as much as possible to avoid using these keys. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  14:04, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Legitimate reason, I understand. --Ouro (blah blah) 14:41, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree with the responses above - Google now does weird things that makes it difficult to use, including usually finding results for words that you never typed. I suspect the chances of Google actually fessing up and reverting back to the much better previous version are rather low. 92.29.112.188 (talk) 17:24, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * My OR experience is that Google's feature of "Here are the search results for what I think you meant" is actually exactly what I wanted 95% of the time; and I expect that since KageTora works as a translator in the legal field, he or she often searches for things that are not often searched for by a large amount of the general public; hence Google's inappropriate suggestions. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:46, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, to be honest, it's actually not just in my work I'm finding this. It's happened many times today already, and for the two or three hours I was working I didn't use Google (except to search for company names, and then it was spot on). I could give examples, but each example would probably have a pretty straightforward explanation, leading me to give more examples, each of which would have straightforward explanations too. Maybe it's just me, but I really do think it is happening far more than it used to. Also, I'm not counting typos, of which I do make my fair share and do allow Google to help there (it's faster than retyping) - this is why it stands out in my mind when Google 'auto-corrects' something which I know to be correct in the first place.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  23:28, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
 * My OR experience is that 95% of the time they are things I don't want. It has a nasty habit of ignoring the full word that you typed, but just taking the first few letters and returning the results for what it guesses from that. So whats in the search box and what you actually get are unrelated. Another thing it sometimes does is just returning a blank screen. The option "Remove Google Annoyances" can be used in the Firefox add-on "Google enhancer", but it turns off every Google script not just those of the (not) "improved" recent version. Is there anything that just turns off the (not) "improved" version? 2.101.12.198 (talk) 12:04, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Nokia N95 Battery Spare
Does anyone know where I could get a replacement battery for my Nokia N95 mobile? I would prefer a shop I can physically walk into, buy the battery, and walk out with it (and possibly take it straight back to them if there are any issues with it), rather than somewhere online, and would therefore be looking for somewhere in the Merseyside region. Cheers. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  07:56, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought about doing this for my aged Motorola RAZR. However, I found that the price of batteries in bricks and mortar was far higher than online (about 4 times the price).  I therefore bought one online and it was eactly the job.  I would, at the very least, invest a small amount of money in an online purchase.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:01, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Maybe KageTora's experience is like mine, in that all the "100% genuine" phone batteries I've bought online have turned out to be fakes, but it's not worth the cost and hassle of returning them and trying to recoup the money. There are phone shops on every high street; if you can't buy it through them then I'm afraid the genuine and reliable article is probably no longer available. This seems to happen all the time with phone batteries.--Shantavira|feed me 15:14, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, Shantavira - I don't mind buying some things online, but fake phone batteries are notorious, from what I've heard/read. Anyway, as it turns out, my mate has got a spare battery. I'll get the charger from Nokia. Cheers. --  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  11:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)