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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

> When I recently Googled “best toaster”...

Well if you google "best toaster" then yes, Google will (and should) show you ads and sponsored posts and articles that have been seo-ed to death, because it's a meaningless search.

Google isn't in the business of assessing toasters' quality. Google is in the business of finding information relevant to your search.

But relevancy goes both ways: you need to search for something specific to find it.

"When will I die" will not point to anything interesting. "Pancreatic cancer symptoms" might.

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It's not in any way a meaningless search and one of the main goals of decent search engine should be to figure out common shorthand searches like this and show meaningful results for them.

When I search "best toaster" it's shorthand for "show me roundup reviews of toasters + forums where people discuss toasters + very highly reviewed toasters on shopping sites". It's not shorthand for "show me loads of ads and SEO bullshit".

Ok, you may be right. But my point is that "best toaster" doesn't mean anything per se; do you want a fast toaster? Durable? Low energy consumption? Elegant? Large capacity?

There are many characteristics to any device and the "best" one depends on personal preferences. What's the "best car" for example? Does that even mean anything?

I don't think a generalist search engine should be used for shopping. You don't need Google to read reviews on Amazon and form your own opinion, again, depending on your own preferences.

People use Google as an oracle and then complain when that fails. But Google is a search engine. It's not the Pope.

I would imagine, if I had info on _every aspect of a human's life_, such as their email, their documents and photos, their messages, their browsing history, etc, that I could tell what _they_ meant by "best" _at that moment_. If not, what _are_ we trading all of that information for? Ads?

We pay for our searches and social media in information rather than currency. Using the information to improve the service would cost more than that information is worth.

> do you want a fast toaster? Durable? Low energy consumption? Elegant? Large capacity?

I don't know. That's why I'm asking "what makes a toaster the best?". I'm trying to learn. If I get bombarded with ads and spam the search engine has failed me.

> But my point is that "best toaster" doesn't mean anything per se;

When I type "best toaster" into a search engine it does have a specific contextual meaning. It means "please help me educate myself on what makes a toaster 'best' so I can make an informed purchase".

Of course. Most people have figured out by now that "best toaster" will only get you horrible SEOd sites written by robots. This is why "best toaster site:reddit.com/r/toasters" gives you the actual best answer.

Not defending Google, but there are hundreds of online retailers that sell toasters [and other such utility items] and it really is an opportunity they are missing by not having a page that addresses such queries whilst allowing 'others' to do it instead.

Cuisinart CPT-180 Classic Toaster

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