From: blockedofcourse@foo.invalid   
      
   On 1/27/2026 7:20 AM, Don Y wrote:   
   > On 1/27/2026 6:36 AM, Martin Brown wrote:   
   >> On 26/01/2026 22:48, Don Y wrote:   
   >>> I am increasingly amused -- to the point of dismay! -- about how   
   >>> little common sense is noted in "answers" provided by tools.   
   >>>   
   >>> Search engines, of course, are notoriously bad at allowing for   
   >>> criteria refinement -- the more terms you add (increasing specificity),   
   >>> the more results you get!   
   >>   
   >> I don't see that at all.   
   >   
   > Go to "your favorite retailer's website".  The interface is far   
   > less "sophisticated" than a search engine like google.   
   >   
   > Some make a good effort at trying to "understand" what is being sought.   
   > E.g., if I go to the USPS website and type a very long identifier   
   > into their search box, it "knows" that I am likely specifying a tracking   
   > number for a parcel and produces those results.  If I type "forever stamp"   
   > I don't expect to see any tracking information.   
   >   
   > If I go to my local library's site and type "Hours", I get hits for   
   > a film called "Hours", a book called "Hours", a film called "The Hours",   
   > books called "His Hour", "By the Hour", etc.  Nothing about "Minutes",   
   > "Days", etc.  Chances are, the earliest results are most likely the   
   > desired results.   
   >   
   > If I go to Target.com (a department store, here), I get 432 results, with   
   > "The Hours" as the 15th result -- behind:   
      
   (Sorry, I should have been cleared, here.  "Hours" produces a list of   
   store hours -- a reasonable assumption.  So, I searched for "The Hours"   
   as the library had told me it was a valid book title)   
      
   > Magic Hour   
   > The Blue Hour   
   > Every Hour Until Then   
   > Twenty Four Hours a Day   
   > The 24th Hour   
   > The After Hours   
   > The Witching Hour   
   > Blue Hour (not the same as The Blue Hour, above)   
   > The Hour I first Believed   
   > Our Hours Are Married to Shadow   
   > Hour of the Pumpkin Queen   
   > Happier Hour   
   > One Hour for My Priest   
   > The Secret Hours   
   > The Hours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
   >   
   > Is there some reason "Magic Hour" is a better result, in their mind?   
   > DESPITE MY SEARCH CRITERIA APPEARING EXACTLY AS SPECIFIED IN THEIR RESULTS?   
   >   
   > Other sites just throw results at you and leave it to you to sort   
   > through THEIR mess.   
   >   
   > If Target wanted to sell me that book, I would likely have given up   
   > before scrolling through several rows of pictorial results (4 per row).   
   >   
   > Is there any guarantee that it will be in the fourth row?  Tenth?   
   >   
   > Other results:   
   >   
   > The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo   
   > The First Time I Saw Him   
   > The Good Girl Effect   
   > Tourist Season   
   > Reckless   
   > etc.   
   >   
   > (and some 15 more pages)  "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" *almost*   
   > matches... there's "The", an 'H' in "Husbands", an 'o' in "of",   
   > a 'u' in "Hugo"...  just missing the final 'r'!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)