new Google Books glitch

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Mar 28 13:58:23 UTC 2012


Naturally I've reported the problem to the Googlemasters.

JL

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 9:21 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: new Google Books glitch
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've found instances when searching within a particular volume where Google
> Books provides hits from entirely different books.
>
> Google Books has gotten so untrustworthy that I now only use it to search
> works for which "full view" is available. The snippet view is essentially
> useless because you cannot trust that the result is anything close to
> accurate without verifying it against the entire volume.
>
> (It also doesn't help that the number of books available with "full view"
> here in Canada is significantly fewer than the number available to those
> searching from the States.)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 7:40 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: new Google Books glitch
>
> I have the impression I'm seeing more false positives than earlier, but I
> don't have solid evidence.
>
> But that's with (Advanced) Search.  I've not seen anything like Jon's
> Search
> Within a Book "glitch" ("phosphorus").  Except, of course, when a Google
> "volume" contains several different books.  (Not the case for the Melville,
> unless something is buried within it!)
>
> At 3/28/2012 06:40 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> >Actually, when I go into Advanced Book Search and run searches that I
> >have run many times in the past, it looks like it is behaving much the
> >same as it has.
> >
> >Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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