Thursday, January 15, 2015

Searching the Haystack! And First Blog of 2015....Happy New Year!

     My friend and I were talking this morning about how he could be a “bad guy” to make himself more attractive to the ladies.  Note, this was a very tongue in cheek, not for real, joking around etc. conversation.   I was saying that short of kicking puppies/kitties/children, not getting put in jail, requiring bail sort of idea, then it was basically fair game.    Got to love conversations with writers.   

     So we were trying to come up with ways to be naughty, but not too naughty.  So I went to Google to look it up.  This was the exact phrase I used to search:

What are some things that you can do to get into trouble, without requiring bail?”  

     So here is what Google pulled up:






 Figure 1



     Yea, not what I expected either. 

    What you have to do with any search engine, is to be as specific as you can.   Be the “needle” in other words…or you will always just get the “haystack! “ 

     So, for instance, today I researched “Query Letters vs. Cover Letters”   (there will be a blog follow up on this topic later).  This is the result:






Figure 2

     See the difference?    Much better, and the top results were exactly what I needed.   


     Now, let’s try to get the original search for what I was looking for narrowed down, and see what happens.


     The original (so you don’t have to scroll up)
           

             “What are some things that you can do to get into trouble, without requiring bail?


     Maybe key words like “Trouble,” or just “Getting into trouble.”  


Trouble:

·  Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y
·          
Dec 14, 2012 - Uploaded by TaylorSwiftVEVO
Buy Now: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/red/id571445253 Music video by Taylor Swift performing I ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trouble_(board_game)
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Wikipedia
Trouble is a board game in which players compete to be the first to send four pieces all the way around a board. Pieces are moved according to the roll of a die.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/trouble
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Dictionary.com
to disturb the mental calm and contentment of; worry; distress; agitate. 2. to put to inconvenience, exertion, pains, or the like: May I trouble you to shut the door?
www.amazon.com › Toys & Games › Play Vehicles
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Amazon.com, Inc.
But don't you get bumped back, or you're in TroubleTrouble is a perfect travel game--car or boat motion won't upset the game's progress; It is indeed satisfying ...
www.newtrouble.com/
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Trouble
Jul 16, 2013 - The Distortion Field' makes history in the TROUBLE camp through the band's acquisition of a new lead vocalist, Kyle Thomas of Exorder and ...
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trouble
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Merriam‑Webster
to make (someone) feel worried or upset. : to disturb or bother (someone). : to cause (someone) to feel pain. SCRABBLE fan? Try our new word finder! ».

Figure 3



     Nope.   Scratch that one. 

     “Getting Into Trouble.”   Definitely an improvement.






Figure 4

     But you see how narrowing it down, gave you more targeted results, and not just anything that mentioned the word?   Narrowing the field down, you spend less time and find what you need.  You may also not even find what you were looking for with the haystack approach.


     Comments and feedback are appreciated.    Happy hunting!

1 comment:

  1. I have no idea what happened to the pictures that I had posted in here, they used tobe there :P

    ReplyDelete